Set during the 17th century Edo period, Silence is a spiritual epic that follows two Portuguese Jesuit priests searching for truth among the southern islands of Japan. Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garupe (Adam Driver) have been assigned to locate their mentor Ferreira (Liam Neeson), who has ceased all contact and is rumoured to have committed apostasy— publicly renouncing his faith. They find the local converted Christian population has been driven underground by fear of violent persecution from the Daimyo Inquisitor, who doubts their loyalty to the Shogunate. Rodrigues and Garupe's journey will test their bodies, minds and beliefs to breaking point, as Silence encourages a contemplation of questions with no easy answers.

This thorny, difficult-to-sell film took over 25 years and more than a few false starts to bring to screen. After Scorsese read Shūsaku Endō's novel Silence (while in Japan working on Akira Kurosawa's Dreams) it became a passion project that was put off time and again, until The Wolf of Wall Street's financial success allowed it to come to fruition. The stunning beauty of the wild coastal landscapes is offset by the miniature passion play of emotional and physical anguish that visibly wears on leads Driver and Garfield. Unsurprisingly a two-and-a-half hour story of faith and suffering wasn't a box office hit, but Silence remains a work of deep emotional resonance that's arguably one of Scorsese's finest.