THE QUIET GIRL - Gareth Higgins

AN CAILÍN CIÚIN/THE QUIET GIRL is one of the most moving films I've ever seen. It manages to do so much with something so simple: a child going to distant relatives for the summer. But in. that summer we have grief and kindness, concern and fear, the ways neighbors can participate in the evolution of each other's loves, or poison the wells, the light and shadow sides of Irish masculinity, a mirroring of our own losses and possibilities.

"Masterpiece" is an overused word, and I think is typically invoked to express the highest praise possible, but it doesn't really convey what I want to say about AN CAILÍN CIÚIN/THE QUIET GIRL. Maybe simply this: if a great film is what happens when technical and aesthetic craft operating at their highest frequencies and a humane concern for the common good kiss each other, then AN CAILÍN CIÚIN/THE QUIET GIRL is a great film.

And if you want to experience a movie as poetry, be moved safely within your own memories of pain, have an expansive stirring of empathy, and be left with a sense that you could - yourself, right now - be a healing presence in the life of the next person you meet. I'm not kidding. AN CAILÍN CIÚIN/THE QUIET GIRL is a bit of a miracle.

https://homecinema.curzon.com/film/the-quiet-girl/