October 20, 2015 -- This documentary film takes a very personal look at the Indonesian genocide that was the subject of the creative 2012 documentary, “The Act of Killing.” Both this film, and “The Act of Killing” were directed by the same man, Joshua Oppenheimer, and backed by the same producers, including Werner Herzog and Errol Morris. “The Look of Silence” is a companion film to “The Act of Killing.”

Where “The Act of Killing” was a multiple award-winning film about a number of killers and their victims. This multiple award-winning film focuses on one victim and the men responsible for a horrible murder, committed in the name of God, capitalism and patriotism. An optometrist, accompanied by a film crew, travels around measuring people for eyeglasses, and asking them questions about the Indonesian genocide in the late 1960s in which roughly a million people were murdered by militias affiliated with the military dictatorship which took power.

The man, Adi Rukun, talks to the killers about his older brother, Ramli who was tortured, mutilated and killed by men who show no remorse for what they did. Some treat the killings as a kind of joke. At first, Adi asks questions about what they did in a more general way. But later, Adi talks about his murdered brother and asks the men what they had to do with his brother's death. Adi's wife and mother are both fearful thid will get him killed for asking too many questions and revealing too much about himself to the killers.

The film shows Adi looking at video of interviews done with killers, including the two men who brutally Ramli, re-enacting the scene at the same spot where they killed him. Every one of the killers interviewed in the film tries to justify the murders or tries to evade responsibility for them, or both. Others not directly involved are seen to claim they are unaware of what happened, similar to claims of people who lived near Nazi concentration camps where millions were exterminated.

A schoolteacher is shown teaching children about this period of history, but he leaves out the part about the mass murders. The interviewer talks to one of his students after school and tells him what he was taught in school was a pack of lies.

The justifications for the murders include religious, as well as political rationals. The murder victims were identified as communists, but the killers also make claims about the religious beliefs of the victims and their supposed lack of morality. In a strange vampire-like twist, several of the killers admit drinking the blood of their victims. They claim drinking the blood of their victims kept them from going crazy.

One of the strangest parts of this story happens when Adi interviews his own uncle, who was a guard at the prison where Ramli was held before he was murdered. Adi's uncle refuses to take any responsibility for Ramli's murder. Adi's mother said she had not heard this part of the story before, and is deeply hurt by her brother trying to cover up his role in her son's murder. The United States, which backed the military dictatorship during the Cold War, had a role in this genocide too. Some of the killers also tried to unload some of their own guilt onto the U.S.

When Adi interviews a prominent politician who was a commander of the Komando Aksi, the militia who carried out many of the murders, the politician makes it very clear that Adi is in danger pursuing these questions about the genocide. The threats against Adi are pretty clear by at least a couple of these men who continue to hold military power. The implication is that their political power, and their enhanced wealth, are both benefits of their murderous activities in the past.

A number of people interviewed for this film say “the past is past” and it should be forgotten. But the past is a shadow that is always with us. The consequences of genocide continue, especially in places where the killers and the families of their victims live side by side, and where the impoverished widows and widowers see the killers of their husbands, wives and children living the good life.

This is a hard film to watch, especially when the gruesome details of the murders are revealed by the same men who committed them. It is heartbreaking to see the suffering of the families of the victims, and the one survivor who escaped. There is no justice, but Adi, and the filmmakers, try to at least confront the killers and bravely bring this horrible, neglected past history to light. This film rates an A.

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Copyright © 2015 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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