The Look of Silence (2015)

This is a brutal follow-up to Joshua Oppenheimer's ground-breaking The Act of Killing. Coming off a well-deserved MacArthur Genius Grant, Oppenheimer tells a horrifying story that needs to be told. It differs from its predecessor in a few ways. This movie's capstone moment is "silent" in comparison to The Act of Killing featuring a remorseful perpetrator heaving loudly. Perhaps for this reason, this film seems slightly less profound. But it is Adi's mother's defeated acceptance of her brother's atrocities that is so powerful.

Whereas I watched The Act of Killing with wide-eyed shock, I sort of knew what to expect going into this movie. The movie features many scenes of Adi sitting alone watching Oppenheimer's footage of perpetrators boasting about their atrocities committed and the terrible things they did to his brother, Ramli. He watches intently, forcing the viewer, too, to not look away. The eyes are a recurring symbol. We hear repeatedly about the common eye gouging. Adi is an optometrist, and his patients are the those who murdered his brother. He claims that everyone knows who killed their relatives, and they live as neighbors in silent acknowledgement. Though he improves their vision, his patients fail to see their own faults from the past.

I'm not positive, but it seemed that this movie was not originally intended by Oppenheimer. It appeared that after many years of research, he discovered that he had a full story from both sides and so he revisited the perpetrators with Adi. Adi confronts the perpetrators by interrogating them forthright. He is brutally honest and very brave. Oppenheimer was less confrontational (it was less personal for him) but rather he allowed the perpetrators to confront their own sins in The Act of Killing. These two approaches are very different, but both are effective in conveying the atmosphere of modern-day Indonesia where the perpetrators remain in power.

Everyone wishes to let the past be past. The victims' families and victim Kemat would rather not reopen old wounds. The children of the perpetrators do not wish to speak about how they came to their positions. And the result is that everyone is silent. They allow history to flow by forgotten. Adi's son learns the lies and propaganda taught in schools. And as a final reminder of the murderers in power, much of the production staff must remain anonymous for their own safety as the credits roll in silence.

The Act of Killing (2012)

The Act of Killing is a very innovative performative documentary. In a refreshing approach to documentary filmmaking, the perpetrators of mass murder in Indonesia in the 1960s reenact their vicious acts.  In modern day Indonesia, the same regime remains in power.  They continue to speak openly about what could only be described as a genocide; in fact, they boast proudly about their methods to Joshua (who speaks Indonesian off-camera), who won a MacArthur Genius grant after making this film to finish his trilogy.  The reenactments are very real, emotions flow, and the eyes of the actors/victims scream terror then someone yells 'cut' and they break.  It is replete with extravagant costumes and gruesome makeup.  It all culminates in Anwar Congo, the most vicious of the perpetrators and the focus of the film, playing the part of a victim and breaking down.  Oppenheimer gets Congo to feel guilt and sympathy for his many victims in a moment that displays the immense power of film.

Despite the heavy subject matter, there are some funny moments as well.  Their normal daily banter is actually quite comical.  What is perhaps so striking is that these killers come off as regular people (at least in the first half) with families that go to the movies and sing and dance, and then we find out the terrible things that they did and the lack of remorse they feel.  Soe Marching, an Indonesian academic, compares the film to Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem and the Banality of Evil.  Evil people are not all genius sociopaths, but rather ordinary people do terrible things perhaps without thinking too much about it.

My one complaint is that the movie is a little long, but I look forward to what other innovations Joshua Oppenheimer will bring to documentaries in the rest of his trilogy.