The Look of Silence Review
By David Kempler
Silent Death
A couple of years ago, Joshua Oppenheimer brought us "The Act of Killing", a powerful documentary that detailed the mass murder of communists in Indonesia that began in 1965 and concluded approximately a year later. Oppenheimer interviewed the murderers who gleefully re-enacted their atrocities. It was insanely surreal.
This time, Adi, an optometrist who is the younger brother of one of the murdered, interviews some of his brother's killers and there are some moments during the interviews where you wonder if he and/or Oppenheimer may be putting themselves at risk of also being murdered by these same people. Some of these murderers remain in government today.
Somehow, Adi manages to control his rage and calmly asks them questions. I can't imagine how he was feeling when confronting these people and how he resisted trying to kill them. Another insanely surreal set of circumstances.
In addition to interviewing the killers, he also speaks to victims of the genocide who managed to survive. Perhaps the toughest moments are when Adi speaks to his own mother about what happened to his brother and her son. His mother recounts how her son escaped from his execution and made it back to their home. He had been beaten and stabbed and was in dire shape.
Soon after he arrived, the thugs showed up and took him, assuring his mother that they were taking him to the hospital. His mother knew he was being taken to be executed but was powerless to do anything about it. Her recounting it is one of the toughest parts to watch. What makes it more heart-wrenching is watching Adi's father, who is blind and almost totally deaf. He can no longer take care of himself, so it is up to his wife. She does so with a mixture of love and obligation.
The most powerful images in the film are when Oppenheimer's camera stays focused on the faces of Adi and the murderers he is questioning. Adi's face masks his emotions most of the time. The killer's faces almost always begin as either smiling or a little uncomfortable. By the end of the interviews, they display severe discomfort, and in some cases anger that evokes the evils these men are capable of enacting. These are the most chilling moments. These looks of silence reveal the truth of what happened.
