Helmer, a single man in his mid-fifties, doesn't talk much. He runs his remote farm and looks after his elderly father. He probably longs for company, even affection. But he is reserved in the face of the milk driver's shy yet persistent courtship, disguising his horror at the offer of love with coldness. A new beginning in the middle of a life stuck in routine is not easy. Nor is it easy to finally give space to long-suppressed longings. Helmer makes up his mind. He moves his father into the attic and renovates the basement. He brings a young man to the farm, who is not hard-working, but who breaks him out of his physical torpor. And finally, there is even the chance of a smile for the milk driver.
With five feature films in 13 years, Nanouk Leopold's oeuvre (including Brownian Movement) may be manageable, but it is all the more impressive for that. Born in Rotterdam in 1968, the filmmaker is a master of subtlety. Even if not much seems to be happening on the surface in It's All So Quiet, complex and far-reaching events take place subliminally beyond simple concepts. You have to entrust yourself to Leopold's wide-awake, patiently recording gaze in order to feel it.
