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Film Search
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Joshua Oppeneheimer’s 2013 documentary The Act of Killing was one of the most emotionally staggering explorations ever filmed about how easy it is to justify horrible evils; this follow-up approaches the subject from a different, equally devastating angle. Where Killing focused on perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, Silence takes the point of view of a survivor: Adi, an optometrist whose own brother was executed before he was born, and who is trying to get those who were responsible to acknowledge and repent of their crimes. Those exchanges are riveting, both in the stillness Adi maintains, and the growing unease of those still in positions of power who could easily make the lives of Adi and his family hell. The notion that history is written by the victors continues from the first film, along with the horrifying images of Adi’s children being taught in school how these murders were heroic. But there’s a genuine heroism in Adi’s quest, as a man who wants nothing more than to be able to forgive collides with a society still incapable of seeing that they have anything to be forgiven for.
Official Site: thelookofsilence.com
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Producer: Signe Sørensen, Werner Herzog, Errol Morris and André Singer
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Producer: Signe Sørensen, Werner Herzog, Errol Morris and André Singer
