The Look of Silence

To call this a ‘companion piece’ to The Act of Killing is to undersell it a little, but it does follow on from that film and builds on the themes of the first - namely the brutal killing of around a million people in mid-1960s Indonesia, and the reluctance of anyone involved to talk about it.

This one follows an optician who was born a few years after his brother was killed in the massacre. He uses a series of eye-tests to interrogate the murderers and try to understand what they did and why they did it.

In spite of having seen the other film back when it came out, I still found myself watching in disbelief here. It’s harrowing to hear people recounting what they did and how they justify it to themselves in the face of their victims, as well as to their children. The camera work is minimalistic, there’s no music and no voice-over. It’s simply an unflinching gaze at people who can only be described as monsters.

Hard but essential viewing.