SILENT WATERS is set in 1979 in Pakistan, when General Zia-ul-Haq took control of the country and stoked the fires of Islamic nationalism. Ayesha, a Muslim woman who gets by on her late husband’s pension and by teaching young girls the Koran, invests her hopes in her beloved son Saleem. But when Saleem takes up with a group of Islamic fundamentalists just as a group of Sikh pilgrims come to town, Ayesha’s haunted past turns her present life upside down.

"Offers cathartic entry into the kind of personal and political turmoil endemic to the [Indian] subcontinent. The cinematography is gorgeous without estheticizing poverty, and the acting is first rate. [The film] painfully underscores how the condition of women must be a watermark for judging any movement promising to reshape society."—Cineaste

“A moving portrayal of societal and religious discord... A rewarding cinematic experience.”—Hollywood Reporter

“Brilliant!”—indieWIRE