The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014): Denmark | Indonesia | Finland | Norway | UK | Israel | France | USA | Germany | Netherlands

Reviewed by Martin Hutchinson. Viewed at the Metro Four Theater, Santa Barbara.

Joshua Oppenheimer’s Oscar nominated documentary The Look of Silence is a film not just of artistic value but of enormous historical and political importance.  The film is a companion piece to Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing (2012) with both forming a diptych on the Indonesian Genocide. This documentary represents the first time in film history in which victims of genocide have confronted those responsible when they still hold positions of power and prestige in the government.

The film centers on the character of Adi, a man whose brother was one of the more publicly murdered of the hundreds of thousands who were summarily executed during the Indonesian genocide. He is faced with footage of boasting from those who carried out these heinous crimes against his brother and he decides that he must confront them to begin a process of truth and reconciliation unilaterally. Adi is an optometrist and he uses free visits as an enticement and a cover to begin the process of confronting those responsible for the genocide in increasingly higher positions of power and responsibility. As he moves up the chain of command he must weigh his urge to bring out the truth with the endagerment of his safety and that of his family.

Oppenheimer sets up each interview to focus on the reaction of the two interviewers rather than focus on the speaker. This is where the true drama and the true nature of the conversation arises. We also have moments of reflection and pause between the interviews that feature still frames of various scenes which, by lacking any human activity, highlight the absence of the millions who died in the Indonesian purges. The red optometrist glasses used in the interviews are an apt metaphor for the moral myopia of the Indonesian perpetrators, and Adi’s attempt to make them see the true nature of their actions.

This film along with The Act of Killing have ushered in a new national dialogue in Indonesia about what was once politically impossible to voice. Oppenheimer is unable to return to Indonesia and much of the crew remains anonymous for their own safety. A monumentally important film that is essential viewing.