This modern take on the silent genre has none of the polish of, say, The Artist, but director Janez Burger's attempt has some powerful moments.

Slovenian filmmaker Janez Burger's dialogue-free poetic fable doesn't dig deep (circus as metaphor for life, thanks Fellini) but there's a gentle surreal charm that's hard to resist.

With enigmatic digressions into the nature of the afterlife, Silent Sonata is a visually sumptuous and moving little picture in which volumes of meaning are passed along - between characters, and also to us, the audience - wordlessly.