In the early Middle Ages, two Christian knights set off to christen a small pagan village hidden deep in the mountains. As they settle into the local community, their faith, belief system and the bond between them are all put to the test.
Called Krew Boga in Poland, which translates to something along the lines of "God's Blood", The Mute is a Polish historical drama with a premise that is effectively Apocalypse Now with the reality that the missionaries are actually the antagonists in World history, not the local people.
Right from the opening shot using variable focus on a tree, focusing ever closer, drawing near, as we wait for the arrival of the main character, the cinematography by Jacek Podgórski is simple but effective. Encapsulating the entire film with a darkened, desaturated blue hue that creates a constant feeling of dampness and danger. Due to language barriers, the visual element is key to the success of the film, and Podgórski makes great use of tracking shots to explore the environment and extreme close-up shots to give the audience every chance of decrypting the essence of what is going on.
The language barrier is an actual barrier for our two main characters, who themselves speak Polish (which is subtitled), but come across this tribe of locals on a landmass who speak something entirely different (without subtitles). Only being aware of one side of the conversation is a challenge that helps the audience empathise with the two main characters, who also cannot understand the local language, and must find alternative ways to communicate. It is such a small choice to make conceptually and artistically speaking, but it makes such a difference to how the locals are received by the audience.
Understanding the language of these people would actually lose the magic of their customs. The community have some intriguing ceremonies and behaviours around the use of coloured muds and the covering and shaping of faces. It gives The Mute a passionate vibe that almost comes across as compulsive and threatening but also mirrors some of the visual stylings of Apocalypse Now and Mad Max: Fury Road. Despite outfits purely composed of mud and fur, there is a clear mix in the styles of costuming, a bountiful variety from limited materials.
The story around these two main characters develops conflict between their preferred methods of conversion; top-down vs. bottom-up. Much like the "leader" vs "boss" rhetoric, one prefers to assert dominance by any means necessary, while the other chooses to show the virtues of following his ways through shared experience. It puts forward interesting philosophical questions, for a film that is largely without [translated] dialogue.
The whole idea of the film is definitely less of a horror and more of a tense drama, that has some exceptional acting that--through facial expressions, body language, and tone--is able to transcend the language barrier effectively. There is a strong emotional weight to the film, which drives the engagement from the audience.
The entire movie is wet or damp in one way or another, and mud is intertwined into nearly every single facet of the film. Gorgeously evocative cinematography, with competent costuming and an intriguing narrative, The Mute is slow and sombre, but it's an atmospheric masterpiece.