The premiere of the film-participant of the Venice Film Festival “The Quiet Gardener” took place at KION

The KION online cinema hosted the premiere of the thriller The Silent Gardener by Paul Schroeder, a classic of American cinema. The director has been working on the subject of the psychology of a person crippled by his past for many years. He was the screenwriter of Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece Taxi Driver. The Silent Gardener starred Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver and Quintessa Swindell.

The protagonist Narvel Roth is a professional in his field, his shelves are lined with books about the history and theory of gardening. In nature, he found his philosophy of life. The hero manages a team of gardeners, with whom he monitors the appearance of the estate of Mrs. Norma Haverhill. She chose the format of the garden not in baroque or classical style, but in the aesthetic, invented at the end of the 19th century for high society.

Narvel has trouble sleeping at night because his past is filled with pain and sin. Many years ago, he was part of a criminal gang and eventually turned in his comrades so as not to go to jail. To this day, his body is covered with tattoos of skulls and eagles, which he does not remove to remember what he did. The ghosts of the past return when Norma asks Narvel to teach the trade to her niece Maya. It turns out that her ex-dealer is after the girl.

In the film, Paul Schroeder again explores the beloved theme of sin, which he worked on in previous films. He displays the injuries of his heroes with the dullness and asceticism of his life. If in “Cold Calculation” the former executioner of the Iraqi military prison was addicted to playing cards, then in Narvel he allegedly does peaceful work and simply takes care of the plants. In fact, he is obsessively trying to bring the world into “order”, destroying the natural chaos of life.

The Silent Gardener premiered out of competition at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, then the movie was screened in New York, Buenos Aires and Athens. Filming took place in Louisiana in the winter and spring of 2022. Initially, Zendaya was planned to participate in the project, but later she was replaced by a colleague on the series “Euphoria” Kunitessa Swindell.