Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer | Denmark/Indonesia/UK/Norway/Finland | Indonesian w/ English subtitles | 2014 | Documentary | 99 mins
Special Mention, Venice Film Festival, UNESCO Award for Best Documentary, Sofia International Film Festival; Berlinale; 2015 Peace Film Award.
Film Source: Drafthouse Films
Filmmaker appearance via Skype for a post-screening Q&A
This film is a must see. In his previous film, The Act of Killing (shown at VTIFF 2013), Oppenheimer focused on the perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide. His follow-up, The Look of Silence, focuses on a family of survivors who discover how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The film avoids the usual clichés of presenting survivors as saintly victims; rather, it explores the meaning of silence borne of terror and, in Oppenheimer’s own words, “it is a poem about the necessity of breaking that silence, but also about the trauma that comes when silence is broken.” This riveting, disturbing and eye-opening film will stay with you long after you’ve left the theater.