German journalist Philip Winter has a case of writer's block when trying to write an article about the United States. He decides to return to Germany, and while trying to book a flight, encounters a German woman and her nine year old daughter Alice doing the same. The three become friends (almost out of necessity) and while the mother asks Winter to mind Alice temporarily, it quickly becomes apparent that Alice will be his responsibility for longer than he expected. After returning to Europe, the innocent friendship between Winter and Alice grows as they travel together through various European cities on a quest for Alice's grandmother.

"The Silence" is about the emotional distance between two sisters. The younger one is still attractive enough to pick up a lover in a strange city. The older one -- even though she is very ill -- would like to make a human connection also but cannot leave the hotel room. Traveling with the sisters is a small boy who escapes into the hotel, meets a troupe of dwarfs. Which sister is this little boy's mother?

Alexander, a journalist and former actor and philosopher, tells his little son how worried he is about the lack of spirituality of modern mankind. In the night of his birthday, the third world war breaks out. In his despair Alexander turns himself in a prayer to God, offering him everything to have the war not happen at all.

Young Ho is a depressed middle-aged man. At his old friend group's reunion, he grows increasingly aggressive until he rushes to the railway to commit suicide. As he screams in regret, we follow the train in reverse, observing the six chapters of his life that led up to his suicide.

1999 South Korean feature film by Lee Chang-dong

When a father turns 60, his large family gathers at a castle to celebrate him. Everybody likes and respects him deeply--or do they? The youngest son is trying to live up to his father's expectations; he runs a grill-bar in a dirty part of Copenhagen. The oldest son runs a restaurant in France; the sister is an anthropologist. The older sister has recently committed suicide and the father asks the oldest son to say a few words about her, because he is afraid he will break into tears if he does it himself. The oldest son agrees without argument. Actually he has already written two speeches. A yellow and a green one. At the table, he asks the father to pick a speech. The father chooses green. The oldest son announces that this is the Speech of Truth. Everybody laughs, except for the father, who looks nervous: he knows that his oldest son is about to reveal the secret of why his sister killed herself.

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