A mentally disturbed man has always felt a gentle and innocent affection for children. Seeing children out on the streets, he gives them colorful sweets in order to add to the Christmas cheer. In his deeply addled state he does not realize he is handing out powerful barbiturates...
"The silent playground" is a memorable, unusually potent mix of thriller and police procedural. The plot deals mainly with the various attempts, by the police, to stop the perpetrator, warn the public and trace the victims. There is a disciplined austerity to the storytelling, which enhances rather than diminishes the horror of the events depicted. Many of the scenes breathe an unsettling eeriness, such as the scene where a few kind-hearted cleaning ladies in aprons happen upon a cinema room filled with rows of sleeping children. It's like some World War II incident suddenly and inexplicably surfacing in the year 1963.
What makes the movie so terrifying and so poignant at the same time, is the fact that there is no real villain to be found. The poor soul handing out the sweets is a vulnerable psychiatric patient, not a calculating criminal mastermind or a gloating sadist. Here two different types of innocence meet and collide, with tragic results : on the one hand the naive trust of children and on the other hand the well-intentioned generosity of an adult utterly out of touch with reality.
Much recommended.
"The silent playground" is a memorable, unusually potent mix of thriller and police procedural. The plot deals mainly with the various attempts, by the police, to stop the perpetrator, warn the public and trace the victims. There is a disciplined austerity to the storytelling, which enhances rather than diminishes the horror of the events depicted. Many of the scenes breathe an unsettling eeriness, such as the scene where a few kind-hearted cleaning ladies in aprons happen upon a cinema room filled with rows of sleeping children. It's like some World War II incident suddenly and inexplicably surfacing in the year 1963.
What makes the movie so terrifying and so poignant at the same time, is the fact that there is no real villain to be found. The poor soul handing out the sweets is a vulnerable psychiatric patient, not a calculating criminal mastermind or a gloating sadist. Here two different types of innocence meet and collide, with tragic results : on the one hand the naive trust of children and on the other hand the well-intentioned generosity of an adult utterly out of touch with reality.
Much recommended.