The Look of Silence

Although it stands alone as a feature documentary in its own right, Joshua Oppenheimer's second film about the Indonesian genocide of 1965-66 plays very much as a sequel to his extraordinary The Act of Killing (2012). Where that film dealt with the bully boys and executioners of the anti-Communist regime, The Look of Silence is more concerned with the victims, focusing on the family of Adi Rukun, whose older brother Ramli was butchered in the carnage. Now 44 and a travelling optician, Adi slyly uses the tools of his trade to get close to the men who took Ramli and destroyed his parents' lives. While The Act of Killing had a strong visual power, notably in the scenes in which Oppenheimer persuades his subjects to act out their sick and deluded dreams of glory, this film is much more muted. What we hear is shocking enough; thankfully Oppenheimer leaves most of these savage horrors to our imagination.