The controversy the movie acquired for being sexually explicit resulted in a much larger audience than most Ingmar Bergman films. When Bergman realized this, he commented that it had attracted the most unwanted viewers of any of his pictures.
The language in the movie is Gun Grut Bergman's creation. She was a translator and linguist in Slavic languages. The name of the city, which is indicated first in the train's speaker, and then by Anna, as Timoka, is a real word however. Bergman found it in a book in Estonian on the bookshelf of his wife Käbi Laretei. When he asked what it meant, she replied "belonging to the hangman".
The chief censor was on holiday when this movie was approved.
The film attracted much international attention. In the United States "The Silence" was presented as a semi-pornographic film with review quotes from the Daily News; "On incest, self-defilement and nymphomania, this Bergman latest is the most shocking movie I have ever seen. I could not believe my eyes.". In Argentina the film's distributor was sentenced to one year imprisonment conditionally, while it was shown uncensored in Uruguay.
Originally intended to be called "The Silence of God".