Film review: Silence (PG)

Pat Collins' essayistic film follows a sound recordist (played by poet and the director's co-writer Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhríde) as he wanders round a remote part of Donegal attempting to record landscapes free from man-made noise.

Collins films the landscapes in loving fashion and shows Eoghan planting his huge, furry microphone in fields, forests or at the sea's edge.

Wherever Eoghan goes, there are traces of the past and of human loss. He meets people who reflect on time, silence and solitude. The storytelling is mournful and enigmatic but in its quiet, inscrutable way, this is a beautiful piece of film-making.