The Jesuit missionaries in Martin Scorsese’s Silence visit Japan to find a missing priest.
The film follows Portuguese Jesuit priests Sebastião Rodrigues and Francisco Garupe as they enter Japan during a period when Christianity is banned and believers face severe persecution. They search for their mentor, Cristóvão Ferreira, who is rumored to have renounced his faith.
Silence was released in 2016 and is based on Shūsaku Endō’s 1966 novel of the same name. Andrew Garfield played Rodrigues, Adam Driver played Garupe, and Liam Neeson played Ferreira.
The story is set largely in seventeenth-century Japan, where authorities used harsh measures to suppress Christianity. Its title refers not only to physical quiet but also to the spiritual silence that the characters experience during suffering and doubt.