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Joshua Oppenheimer’s 2014 documentary The Look of Silence on Netflix retells a chapter of Indonesia’s infamous history, and it pulls viewers into its haunting aftermath. The film, with an overwhelming Rotten Tomatoes score of 96 per cent, has left audiences shaken, not because of any dramatic embellishment, but because of its raw confrontation with a national wound that never really healed.
According to The Mirror, the film, which is set decades after the 1965–1966 mass killings in Indonesia, exposes the fallout from a campaign that targeted communists, union members, and supposed leftist sympathisers. What soon followed was the execution of hundreds of thousands, possibly up to a million, and a culture of silence and fear that gripped the nation for generations.
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The documentary revolves around Adi Rukun, an optometrist whose life has been shadowed by the murder of his brother. Through old footage and new confrontations, Adi meets the men who played a part in that horror. He tests their eyesight, calmly asks them about the past, and listens as they speak about killings with a chilling lack of remorse. His silence speaks louder than their words ever could.
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The Look of Silence on Netflix brings viewers closer to the grief that still lingers in the homes of survivors. Decades later, families continue to live next door to the unpunished. Some of the perpetrators’ children only now learn the truth, watching their fathers speak of blood and machetes without flinching. The film follows in the footsteps of Oppenheimer’s earlier work, The Act of Killing, but shifts the focus from the boastful killers to those they left behind. Through stark interviews and archival footage, it builds a creeping tension that refuses to let go. The emotional weight settles in slowly, but once it’s there, it doesn’t move.
Industry voices and everyday viewers alike responded with stunned admiration. The documentary earned an Oscar nomination and received awards from global festivals, including the Venice International Film Festival.
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A viewer wrote on Rotten Tomatoes, “Disturbing, surreal, painful, enlightening, and unforgettable. It’s all that and more in an astonishing look at the Indonesian genocide.” Another added, “Disturbing, surreal, painful, enlightening, and unforgettable. It’s all that and more in an astonishing look at the Indonesian genocide.” A third echoed, “The Look of Silence is a sobering, gut-wrenching documentary, but also an important one.”
The Look of Silence is available on Netflix in the US.
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