The Hope of the Cross in Martin Scorsese’s Silence

Martin Scorsese’s Silence depicts the relationship between man and God. In the atmosphere of seventeenth-century Japan, where Christians were persecuted as a consequence of their attempt to spread Catholic Christianity, the film follows the journey of Jesuit priest Father Rodrigues, who is sent to the country in search of his vanished mentor. Throughout, Rodrigues’s journey turns out to be external and physical as much as it is internal and, predominantly, spiritual. Found in a country and culture to which he doesn’t belong, and which are hostile to him, Rodrigues’s faith slowly undergoes a transformation. This article focuses on the way his relationship to God changes, and on how this delicate, yet powerful process is presented through the film.