A Question of Silence

Whether the scene is intended as real or imagined is unclear, but in the next film, A Question of Silence (2008), this joy has evaporated and Hansen is found in a stifling (and fully clothed) situation, this time with a middle-aged man. The two sit next to one another, yet there is great distance between them, despite the man’s efforts at affection. Half-way through the film a surreal twist is presented, as the man is shown to be holding a ventriloquist’s dummy, which mimes along to the poignant soundtrack song ‘As Morning Holds a Star’, sung by US transgender singer/songwriter Baby Dee. Events then take an even stranger turn as one of Hansen’s legs falls off, although with little apparent inconvenience to her. Just’s meaning here is presumably metaphorical, an illustration of the couple’s destructive inability to communicate, and the film undoubtedly suggests that a disturbing dysfunction lies between the two characters.