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IMDbPro

The Look of Silence

  • 20142014
  • PG-13PG-13
  • 1h 43m
IMDb RATING
8.3/10
13K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
20,207
1,986
Inong in The Look of Silence (2014)
A documentary that follows its subject, Adi, as he digs into the horror of his family's history and the loss they suffered during the Indonesian military coup of the 1960s.
Play trailer1:45
2 Videos
55 Photos
DocumentaryBiographyHistory
A family that survived the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.A family that survived the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.A family that survived the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.
IMDb RATING
8.3/10
13K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
20,207
1,986
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Joshua Oppenheimer
    • Stars
      • Adi Rukun
      • M.Y. Basrun
      • Amir Hasan(archive footage)
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Joshua Oppenheimer
    • Stars
      • Adi Rukun
      • M.Y. Basrun
      • Amir Hasan(archive footage)
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 31User reviews
    • 187Critic reviews
    • 92Metascore
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 48 wins & 45 nominations total

    Videos2

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 1:45
    Official Trailer
    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:34
    Official Trailer

    Photos55

    With profound sadness, Adi watches footage of interviews conducted by Joshua Oppenheimer with perpetrators of the 1965-66 Indonesian genocide.
    Adi questions Commander Amir Siahaan, one of the death squad leaders responsible for his brother’s death during the Indonesian genocide.
    A teacher propagates the existing rhetoric on the Indonesian genocide to his pupils.
    Adi’s mother, Rohani, stretches her weary body.
    Adi’s children play with jumping beans.
    Adi and his mother, Rohani, share a solemn moment.
    Inong in The Look of Silence (2014)
    Joshua Oppenheimer in The Look of Silence (2014)
    Joshua Oppenheimer and Adi Rukun at an event for The Look of Silence (2014)
    Adi Rukun at an event for The Look of Silence (2014)
    Joshua Oppenheimer at an event for The Look of Silence (2014)
    Joshua Oppenheimer and Adi Rukun at an event for The Look of Silence (2014)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Adi Rukun
    Adi Rukun
    • Self - brother of murdered Ramli Rukun
    M.Y. Basrun
    • Self - former commander of a civilian militia
    Amir Hasan
    • Self - former leader of death squad
    • (archive footage)
    Inong
    Inong
    • Self - former leader the village death squad
    Kemat
    • Self - survivor from Snake River massacre
    Joshua Oppenheimer
    Joshua Oppenheimer
    • Self
    • (voice)
    • (as Josh)
    Amir Siahaan
    • Self - former commander of Snake River death squads
    Ted Yates
    • Self - reporter, NBC News
    • (archive footage)
    • Director
      • Joshua Oppenheimer
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Adi and his family moved thousands of kilometers away to the other side of the country, out from under the shadow of the perpetrators who are still powerful situation in North Sumatra.
    • Quotes

      Himself, brother of murdered Ramli Rukun: Tell me about that madness.

      Himself, former leader the village death squad: Some killed so many people who have gone mad. A man climbed a palm tree, every morning, to call for prayer. Killed too many people. There is only one way to avoid it. Drink the blood or go crazy. But if you drink blood, you can do anything.

      Himself, brother of murdered Ramli Rukun: [Testing the eyeglasses] What do you think...

      Himself, former leader the village death squad: Salty and sweet. The human blood.

      Himself, brother of murdered Ramli Rukun: Pardon?

      Himself, former leader the village death squad: Human blood is salty and sweet. I know from experience.

    • Connections
      Edited into P.O.V.: The Look of Silence (2016)
    • Soundtracks
      Lukisan Malam
      music by E. Sambayon & lyrics by Sakti Alamsyah

      performed by Sam Saimun

      courtesy of Irama Records

    User reviews31

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    9/10
    Oppenheimer is the Most Important Documentarian of his Generation
    With just two films to his name, both about the Indonesian mass-murders of the mid-1960's Oppenheimer has become the most important documentarian of his generation.

    His second film, "The Look of Silence", coupled with his "The Act of Killing" has created a sea- change in the Indonesian truth, justice and reconciliation movement. Forcing new laws to be written and putting the government in a defensive position against the nation's media.

    But Oppenheimer is more than an activist. He's an artist. His films are contemplative, playful and quietly confrontational. His visual attack is succinct, his marriage of form and theme is flawless and his moral intent is thunderous.

    Where "Act of Killing" was concerned with a larger study of post-massacre Indonesia, "Look of Silence" chooses a more intimate landscape. Geographically, emotionally and cinematically it is regional. Concerned with a single killing, the men who did it – directly and indirectly - the family it affected and the small village that has lived with questions about other killings like it for fifty years. Where "Act of Killing" lived in absurdist grand cinema, "Look of Silence" exists in tight close-ups of the perpetrators, survivors and truth-seekers. More than anything, more than words, their faces tell the story. So much happens behind the eyes, around the corners of the mouth, in unspoken glances. The horror, doubt, guilt and seemingly impossible reconciliation stirs below the surface. For all the cinematic flex of "Act of Killing", this contained take on the same material, seems more haunted and human.

    The star of the film, Adi the eyewear peddler, pursues this mission with intelligence and courage. We meet his family. His happy playful daughter, his thoughtful son, his cautious loving wife, his ageless mother (probably the most engaging character captured on film this year), his wisp of an ancient father, and his memory of a murdered brother, looming over everything. From them he finds the courage to question murderer after murderer face-to-face. The combination of his profession as an optometrist with his quest to seek truth would seem heavy-handed if it were fiction, but nothing here is inauthentic. In showing all of Adi's family, from the fresh and young, to the spent and dying, we see the full arc of life.

    Lastly, the film makes a glancing but firm indictment against the American anti-Communist fervor that fed into - and the American corporations that profited from - these killings. It gives strong evidence that the Cold War, the war of ideology and the murder of millions, allowed for, and was even fought for, Western corporate dominance in places like this. And here the grinding up of human beings for profit in this situation is undeniable. Oppenheimer wants to make sure no one involved gets off without having to face, if not their own role in the massacre of millions, then at the very least, their culture's.

    And so it goes, the people (wives, mothers, daughters, sons, fathers, husbands), the silence, the haunted jungle hum that fills most of the auditory space in the film, the great and overwhelming significance of it all… everything pools together to show us something words alone can't manage. Something about how a horror can be so great that its impact can loom over generations. About living with debilitating fear of those who have claimed power over you through violence. About the most nightmarish tendencies in humanity, and our courageous capacity to overcome the worst of ourselves. About just how difficult it is to look into the eyes of a killer and say, "I know what you did."

    And more profoundly, more frighteningly… "I know you."
    helpful•41
    3
    • JoshuaDysart
    • Jul 29, 2015

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 17, 2015 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Denmark
      • Indonesia
      • Finland
      • Norway
      • United Kingdom
      • Israel
      • France
      • United States
      • Germany
      • Netherlands
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Official site
    • Language
      • Indonesian
    • Also known as
      • Sessizliğin Bakışı
    • Filming locations
      • Indonesia
    • Production companies
      • Anonymous
      • Britdoc Foundation
      • Final Cut for Real
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $109,089
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $6,616
      • Jul 19, 2015
    • Gross worldwide
      • $157,857
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 43 minutes
    • Color
      • Color

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