No Greater Love

Tucked away off Ladbroke Grove in central London sits the monastery of the Most Holy Trinity, home since 1878 to an order of Carmelite nuns. Michael Whyte's labour-of-love documentary leads us through the door and down the halls. But there are strict limits to this access, and film's haunting Vermeer visuals conspire to keep the viewer at a respectful arm's length. Whyte is not here to pry or probe too deeply. He simply records the day-to-day routine of these cloistered inhabitants. We see them cook, clean, potter about in the garden and engage in some genteel recreational folk dancing. Outside the traffic is rumbling, and yet the sisters are all focused elsewhere, pointed towards a higher plane that no camera can reach, assuming it is even there at all. "God remains a mystery," admits the prioress. "And we have to live with that mystery." No Greater Love plays silent witness for a spell and then bows out, the mystery left intact.