THE LOOK OF SILENCE is Joshua Oppenheimer’s powerful companion piece to
his Oscar-nominated THE ACT OF KILLING. Through Oppenheimer’s footage of
perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors
discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the
killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, an optometrist
named Adi, who decides to break the suffocating spell of submission and
terror by doing something unimaginable in a society where the murderers
remain in power—he confronts the men who killed his brother and, while
testing their eyesight, asks them to accept responsibility for their
actions. This unprecedented film initiates and bears witness to the
collapse of fifty years of silence.
“One of the greatest and most powerful documentaries ever made.” - Errol Morris