The Look of Silence

The Look of Silence
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joshua Oppenheimer
Produced by	Signe Byrge Sørensen
Music by	Seri Banang Mana Tahan
Cinematography	Lars Skree
Edited by	Niels Pagh Andersen
Production company	Anonymous Final Cut for Real Making Movies Oy Piraya Film A/S Spring Films
Release dates	28 August 2014 (2014-08-28) (Venice)
Running time	103 minutes[1]
Country	Denmark Finland Indonesia Norway United Kingdom
Language	Indonesian Javanese

The Look of Silence (Indonesian: Senyap, "Silence") is a 2014 Danish documentary film directed by Joshua Oppenheimer about the Indonesian killings of 1965–66. The film is a companion piece^[2] to Oppenheimer's 2012 documentary The Act of Killing. It was executive produced by Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, and Andre Singer.^[3]

A middle-aged Indonesian man, whose brother was brutally murdered in the 1965 purge of "communists," confronts the men who carried out the killings. Out of concern for his safety, the man is not fully identified in the film and is credited only as "anonymous," as are many of the film's crew positions. Some shots consist of the man watching The Act of Killing. He visits some of the killers and their collaborators—including his uncle—under the pretense of an eye exam. Although none of the killers express any remorse, the daughter of one of them is clearly shaken when she hears, apparently for the first time, the details of the killings.

The film was screened in the official competition at the 71st Venice International Film Festival,^[4][5] where it won the Grand Jury Prize, the International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI), the Italian online critics award (Mouse d'Oro), the European Film Critics Award (FEDEORA), as well as the Human Rights Nights Award.^[6] Since then, it has gone on to win multiple awards, including Best World Documentary (Cinephile Prize) at the Busan International Film Festival,^[7] the Grand Prize (DOX Award) at CPH:DOX,^[8] the prize for Best Documentary at the Starz Denver Film Festival,^[9] a Danish Arts Council Award for outstanding achievement in filmmaking,^[10] and the Best Film Award at the One World human rights documentary film festival.^[11]

Additionally, the film has screened at the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Zurich Film Festival, IDFA (International Documentary Festival Amsterdam), and MIFF (Melbourne International Film Festival).

On November 10, 2014, 2,000 people came to the official and public premiere of the film in Jakarta, and on December 10, 2014 – International Human Rights Day – there were 480 public screenings of the film across Indonesia. The screenings of the film in Indonesia has been sponsored by the National Human Rights Commission of Indonesia and the Jakarta Arts Council.

It has been selected to be screened in the Berlinale Special Galas section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015.^[12]

The Look of Silence received positive reviews. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 97% rating, an average score of 8.9/10, based on 92 reviews, the critic's consensus on there stating that "The Look of Silence delivers a less shocking – yet just as terribly compelling – companion piece to Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing.^[13] On Metacritic, the film has a 92 out of 100 rating based on 29 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[14]

• Official website
• The Look of Silence at the Internet Movie Database
• The Look of Silence at Box Office Mojo
• The Look of Silence at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Look of Silence at Metacritic
• "The Look of Silence": Will New Film Force U.S. to Acknowledge Role in 1965 Indonesian Genocide?. Democracy Now! August 3, 2015.