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La Voca del Silenzio (Voice of Silence) was the only Italian production of fabled German director G. W. Pabst. Based on a concept by neorealism specialist Cesar Zavattini (fleshed out by a team of =12= prominent writers, including Pabst himself and Jean Cocteau), the film follows a small group of very troubled men during a three-day spiritual sojourn. One is a politician, laden with guilt over his comportment during WW II. The second is a war veteran whose wife has "grown away" from him. The third is a writer of detective novels whose works might have inspired a real-life killing. The fourth is a thief who has come to the spiritual retreat to avoid capture. And the fifth is a candle merchant whose livelihood is threatened by modern technology. One of the few concessions to popular taste is a striptease sequence involving Rosanna Podesta. In keeping with the film's title, few words are spoken in La Voca del Silenzio; in this respect, the film is an intriguing throwback to Pabst's classic silent films.