The Look of Silence (2014) (Indonesian Language)

Review

103min

Genre:    Documentary

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer

Writer:   Joshua Oppenheimer

Award-winning US director Joshua Oppenheimer heads a Danish documentary production chronicling an Indonesian man’s efforts to make sense of the Indonesian political “killings” (or genocide) of 1965-66 which brutally claimed the lives of between 500 thousand and 1 million people, one of which happened to be his own brother.

A companion piece for Oppenheimer’s unique and powerful 2012 documentary ‘The Act of Killing’, ‘The Look of Silence’ takes a more introspective view of the events where a failed military coup was blamed on “communists” and prompted the military government to foster a general hatred leading to an anti-communist “purge” that brutally murdered at least half a million people, made all the worse by the negligence and often complicity of Western governments that were utterly consumed with the cold war and fighting communism, a stance which led to atrocities across the globe with Central & South America and other parts of South-East Asia getting more attention than Indonesia.

 Oppenheimer gives the narrative a more personal touch by focusing on a single family and the effect of losing their brother in such a senseless and brutal manner, the legacy of the killings you might expect would have the same harrowing effect on hundreds of thousands of families and the country as a whole, hence the title whereby families continue to suffer in silence while many of the perpetrators remain in power apparently untouchable.

 With a lack of almost any archival footage or photographic evidence ‘The Look of Silence’ relies on the testimonies of victims and their families and the disturbingly candid & borderline boastful descriptions from the perpetrators for dramatic content, depending on your point of view this might make it a more or less powerful film but given that there is no way to independently confirm what happened between 1965-66 it might make the whole documentary somewhat controversial.

 The Bottom Line…

A powerful and personalized account of one of the more overlooked genocides in recent history, ‘The Look of Silence’ is a stark warning against stoking the fires of ideological & religious hatred and is most effective when accompanying Oppneheimer’s 2012 documentary ‘The Act of Killing’.

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Similar films you may like (Home Video)

The Act of Killing (2012)

Inventive and disturbing documentary exposing the perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide where up to 1 million “communists” were brutally killed, director Joshua Oppenheimer appeals to the vanity of the executioners by challenging them to re-create their actions in flamboyant “Hollywood” style, actions which they were lauded as national heroes for.

Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer and starring Anwar Congo and Herman Koto among others.

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