Every Martin Scorsese film is special, but Silence has a particularly reverential ring about it. Based on the 1966 novel by Japanese author Shusaku Endo, the director has been striving to make the film for 28 years.
Archbishop Paul Moore, an Episcopalian in New York, gave him a copy of the book in 1988, while Scorsese was making The Last Temptation of Christ, his film about the life of Jesus.
Despite his many triumphs through the years, however, it was only after the huge success of his previous film, The Wolf of Wall Street, that Scorsese was able to get Silence under way.
“I think it was very moving for him to be finally making it – and therefore for all of us,” says star Andrew Garfield.
“You could feel the sacredness of the story and the book in his heart. It led to a very special experience for everyone involved. I think he was very humbled to be making it. It was a beautiful thing to see.”
Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge) and Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) play a pair of 17th-century Portuguese Jesuit priests – Sebastian Rodrigues and Francisco Garupe respectively – who travel to Japan at a time when Christianity has been outlawed there. They are searching for fellow priest Christovao Ferreira (Liam Neeson), who is rumoured to have renounced his religious beliefs under threat of torture. At the time, the Japanese authorities were ruthless in their treatment of those preaching Catholicism.
"My God, you talk about a hostile environment," says Neeson, who previously worked with Scorsese on Gangs of New York.
“But I can kind of understand the Japanese reaction to that kind of colonialism, which the Portuguese were after. They always sent the missionaries in first to appease the people and win them over to God. And, of course, the Japanese were terrified of being colonised and ruthlessly put down the Catholic faith and believers.”
Garfield calls the story “a heart of darkness journey”, as Rodrigues and Garupe try to find Ferreira.
“It’s an amazing meditation on faith, mercy, compassion – the big tenets of Christian spirituality and all spirituality – especially ripe for our times,” he says. “Can these different roads to a life of spirituality, Buddhism and Christianity, coexist?
“And, of course, these questions are playing out all over the world on a daily basis, and lives are being lost and destroyed in the name of someone’s God.”
American-British actor Garfield spent a year preparing for his role with Scorsese, which he describes as an unforgettable period in his career.
“I properly spent time with him,” he says.
“My research has never been so taken care of. I have five or six boxes full of ring-binders, historical research, and two boxes full of movies … the weirdest films, from the far reaches of Japan.”
He went even further, renting a sparse room in New York and practising the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola.
This intense preparation culminated with a seven-day silent retreat at St Bueno’s Jesuit house in Wales.
“If I could have gone to seminary school to play this priest, I would’ve,” he adds. “If I had the time, if I had 14 years to spend in Portugal, and then study in the seminary, study theology, I would. I love it. It’s fascinating. You get to live all these different lives and walk in these different shoes.”
In Silence, a film that thematically sits neatly alongside Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ and his 1997 film Kundun, "everyone" is struggling with their beliefs, says Driver.
“It’s about the relationship to faith and the crisis of faith,” he adds. “I based my character a lot on St Peter, who I really relate to having doubts. When tested, hopefully he rises to the occasion – but is very open about his anxiety and doubt along the way.”
The way Neeson sees it, even if you are not religious, you can find value and meaning in Silence and its debate about faith.
“It doesn’t have to be about Catholic faith or Protestant faith … you can apply it to relationships, marriage, your job,” he says.
Driver agrees that the film’s themes extend far beyond religion. “Anything you’ve committed yourself to, there’s inevitably a crisis: ‘What it is I’m doing, I don’t believe it anymore’ – even with acting,” he says.
While these actors did not suffer in the way their characters do, Silence was nonetheless a difficult, demanding project.
Both Driver and Garfield shed considerable amounts of weight to play characters who endure terrible hardships during their journey.
“It made other things more complicated,” says Driver. He dropped 51 pounds, going so far as to use weight-loss pills on the set in Taiwan, which added to the difficulties as they kept him awake at night.
“There are seven different languages going on, on set, and you’re shooting in Taiwan, so even just getting to communicate with people took more of an effort,” he says.
“Running up and down hills in the mountains is hard anyway, but when you have no body fat and you’re tired [it’s even more difficult].”
But then, for Scorsese, actors will do anything.
“He’s an institution,” says Garfield with a smile. “He’s this gift to cinema.”
• Silence is in cinemas from Wednesday
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