| The End of Silence | |
| Director: | Anita Doron |
| Producer: | Anita Doron Erin Faith Young |
| Starring: | Ekaterina Shchelkanova John Tokatlidis Sarah Harmer |
| Cinematography: | Anita Doron |
| Editing: | Duncan Christie |
| Music: | Fernando Albert Yu |
| Studio: | Faith Films Riverside Entertainment |
| Distributor: | Mongrel Media |
| Runtime: | 94 minutes |
| Country: | Canada |
| Language: | English Russian |
The End of Silence is a 2005 Canadian romantic drama film, directed by Anita Doron.[1] The film stars Ekaterina Shchelkanova as Darya, a Russian ballerina who decides to abandon her dance company after an argument with her director (Max Ratevosian) while on tour in Toronto; without money and with very little knowledge of English to communicate, she is preparing to return home to Russia on her own when she meets Eddie (John Tokatlidis), who becomes a love interest despite their communication barriers.[2]
The film also stars Sarah Harmer as Nora, Eddie's ex-wife who also becomes a friend and employer to Darya.[1]
Doron stated that she was interested in making a film about communicating through and around silence, as well as in depicting a strong, healthy and supportive friendship between women rather than the more common filmic depiction of female friendships as competitive or duplicitous.[1] She has also stated that she was influenced by the video diaries of Jim Jarmusch.[3]
The film was Harmer's first-ever acting role.[1] Despite her renown as a musician, however, she did not contribute music to the film's soundtrack, as she and Doron agreed on the importance of maintaining a separation between Harmer's music and acting;[1] however, her real-life friends Tanis Rideout, Luther Wright and Chris Brown have small roles in the film as friends of Nora's.[1] Harmer has also stated that she played Nora as a more repressed and uptight version of herself, rather than trying to create a character more dissimilar to herself.[3]
The film premiered in the Borsos Competition program at the 2005 Whistler Film Festival.[4] It was subsequently screened at the 2006 Canadian Filmmakers Festival, where it won the award for Best Feature Film.[5]