Speak No Evil

A Danish family visits a Dutch family they met on a holiday. What was supposed to be an idyllic weekend slowly starts unraveling as the Danes try to stay polite in the face of unpleasantness. 

Described as ‘the ultimate middle class European horror’ (Warped Perspective) Speak No Evil (2022) invites the audience to contemplate social norms, and asks: what are the limits of tolerance, and what should they be? What then if someone crosses a line? It is always possible to challenge transgressions, of course, but this may not be easy. In fact, challenging others can be awkward, while the path of least resistance can be appealing. Patience is often described as a virtue, after all. But what if the person does it again? At what point should a person act, and how do we draw such lines?

About YR Erden: Dr YJ Erden is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Twente. Her research covers minds and brains, philosophy of technology, and human enhancement. For the latter, she co-authored ethics guidelines on human enhancement that were adopted by the European Commission. Her philosophical work spans philosophy of language, personal identity, ethics, epistemology, and aesthetics. She is on the committee for the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB) and is a council member of the Royal Institute of Philosophy.

About PhilofilmPhilofilm is a monthly series, in which, on each first Monday of the month, a film is introduced and discussed by a philosopher. The evenings are entirely in the English language. Philofilm is a collaboration between Concordia and Ideefiks, the study association for Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society at the University of Twente.