We talked about how the film is quite sad for a comedy (IMDB says comedy/romance; I'd say comedy/drama). Or is it tragically funny for a drama? This reminded me of Thank God He Met Lizzie, which Theresa hasn't seen. While we're adding Australian drama to our list of films to revisit, I wouldn't mind seeing The Quiet Room again.
Though The Quiet Room is probably my favourite micro-budget film, it appears the story was almost an afterthought. Apparently it came about because Rolf de Heer needed money to pay the rent, and he set out to make a film with little more than what he had: daughters who could not act. This was the motivation for a girl who didn't speak. The story then formed around that.