The Look of Silence (2014)

A family that survived the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.

Director:

Joshua Oppenheimer

Stars:

Adi Rukun, M.Y. Basrun, Amir Hasan

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 48 wins & 42 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Adi Rukun	...	Himself, brother of murdered Ramli Rukun
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
M.Y. Basrun	...	Himself, former commander of a civilian militia
Amir Hasan	...	Himself, former leader of death squad (archive footage)
Inong	...	Himself, former leader the village death squad
Kemat	...	Himself, survivor from Snake River massacre
Joshua Oppenheimer	...	Himself (voice) (as Josh)
Amir Siahaan	...	Himself, former commander of Snake River death squads
Ted Yates	...	Himself, reporter, NBC News (archive footage)

Storyline

An Indonesian man with a communist background named Ramli was brutally murdered when the "Communist" purge occurred in 1965. His remaining family members lived in fear and silence until the making of this documentary. Adi, a brother of his, decided to revisit the horrific incident and visited the men who were responsible for the killings and one survivor of the purge. These meetings uncovered sadistic details of the murders and exposed raw emotions and reactions of the killers' family members about what happened in the past - much to Adi's disappointment.

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Plot Keywords:

torture | ophthalmologist | genocide | indonesia | self justification | 

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Taglines:

Astonishing.

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Genres:

Documentary | Biography | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG - 13 for thematic material involving disturbing graphic descriptions of atrocities and inhumanity

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

Denmark Indonesia Finland Norway UK Israel France USA Germany Netherlands

Language:

Indonesian

Release Date:

17 July 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

A csend képe

Filming Locations:

Indonesia

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,616, 19 July 2015, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$109,089

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$332,710

Company Credits

Production Co:

Anonymous, Britdoc Foundation, Final Cut for Real

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to Joshua Oppenheimer, this film is the first film with the main country is from Indonesia that nominated for an Oscar, and the second film that used Indonesian language (Bahasa) that nominated for an Oscar.

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Quotes

Joshua Oppenheimer: What support did you have from the Army?
Amir Hasan - Former Leader of Death Squad: They waited at the road with the truck. They didn't come down here. They never came down here. They called this, 'The People's Struggle.' So, they kept their distance. If the Army was seen doing this, the world would be angry. 'The Army is killing Communists!' So, to protect their image they made it look like the people exterminated the Communists. But everybody knows the Army was behind it.

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Connections

Follows The Act of Killing (2012)

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Soundtracks

Lukisan Malam
music by E. Sambayon & lyrics by Sakti Alamsyah
performed by Sam Saimun
courtesy of Irama Records

User Reviews

Unfathomable

It's hard to "review" a movie like "The Look of Silence". You don't really watch it and evaluate it like you do anything else. You bear witness.

I have never been able to write anything about its prequel, "The Act of Killing". I broke my rule of reviewing every movie I watch on here because I just wasn't up to the task. Watching that movie, and "The Look of Silence" to a slightly lesser extent, was like being dosed with heroin and hit with a sledgehammer. The usual "disturbing" movie, documentary or otherwise, has an impact that can be shaken off eventually. With "The Act of Killing", I never really felt it, but I knew it was there. It took something from me. The impact bled through into my day to day life. It wasn't just like a bad dream. It was real.

Here is "The Look of Silence". It gives a different side of the story that "Act of Killing" presented, through the son of survivors of the Indonesian genocide. He learns about the fate of his older brother, killed two years before his birth. Then he confronts some of the killers and their families, though these meetings don't go as you might expect, especially for the son, Adi.

This movie really should be watched alongside "The Act of Killing". Whereas "The Look of Silence" is no less horrible in its descriptions of actual murder, I have a feeling that it is the goodness of Adi and his family you will remember.