BREAKING THE SILENCE
As The Assistant starts, dialogue is in short supply. At dawn, a recently employed young junior assistant at a film company arrives at work before her colleagues. Her only company is the hum, buzz and whir of office equipment, an ambient soundscape draped around her. Her only friend, it seems, is a “big hug” mug. In many ways, we soon learn silence is not always golden.
The question of silence is crucial to , the debut feature from former documentary-maker Kitty Green. It’s there as Jane (Julia Garner) starts her day. It lingers as she enquires about colleagues’ weekends and receives little in the way of reply, let alone a “Thank you” for the unquestioned, unexamined office duties she is forced to take on. We watch as she quietly fetches sandwiches, scrubs the couch, prepares her boss’ medication, stocks the fridge with bottled water, prints schedules and assumes impromptu childcare duties, all before looking after a suspiciously young, inexperienced new
