Die große Stille, (in English “Into Great Silence”) was made by German filmmaker Philip Gröning about the lives of Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse, a monastery high in the French Alps.
The idea for the film was proposed to the monks decades earlier. It wasn't until 16 years later that Gröning received a response informing they would be happy for him to filmer the documentary so long as respect was observed at the monastery. That meant no big trucks full of heavy-duty camera equipment, Philip would travel there alone and make a candid observation of the monks in a place that was usually completely off-limits to the general public.
The Into Great Silence documentary was filmer in a six-month period from 2002 to 2003 using minimal influence on the subjects. After that, it took over two years to edit and finish the final cut. Finally being released in 2005, 21 years after it was first proposed.
