4) The Look Of Silence: The Silence Itself
The Act Of Killing left our jaws on the floor, and Joshua Oppenheimer’s sequel, The Look Of Silence, picks up exactly where he left off. This second glance into Indonesia’s harrowing genocide problem doesn’t bother to create a gimmicky facade like The Act Of Killing did, and goes right for the jugular. Oppenheimer can no longer hide behind the safety of filmmaking, and interviewees show more aggression towards the questions being asked. This is the angrier, more emotionally charged take on Indonesia’s bloody past – an opposition many of these people deserve.
It’s the silence itself that’s so disturbing, though. Not the threats, not the lies – eerily dead moments of nothingness where people reflect upon the atrocities they’ve committed. Oppenheimer doesn’t fill these moments with any kind of distraction, and fixates on his subjects without flinching. The silence suggests a struggle to admit wrongs, and make personal peace, but then these monsters spew more hate, refusing to address their own flawed judgement. This is a chance for killers to make things right, in the smallest of ways, but the silence proves otherwise.
