Review: The Look of Silence (2015)

* * * *
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer

"You can't imagine what would have happened." That's the response given to the interviewer when he asks what would have happened to him if he were asking the questions he's asking during the period of the "Communist" purge. It's a chilling thing to read in print, but it's even more so to see and hear it said, its impact in no way dulled by the fact that it's surrounded by other deeply disturbing moments. The Look of Silence is director Joshua Oppenheimer's companion piece to his 2013 documentary The Act of Killing, and tackles the same subject as that previous film (the Indonesian killings of 1965-66) but from the perspective of the family of one of the victims, and in the absence of the overt stylization of the first film. Though it would hardly seem possible, The Look of Silence is somehow even more powerful and harrowing than the previous film.

Review: The Act of Killing (2013)

* * * *
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, Anonymous

The Act of Killing is easily one of the most upsetting films I've ever seen. I suppose that that's a good thing, all things considered, and it certainly speaks to the power of this documentary, but there were definitely moments scattered throughout the film when I thought that I just wouldn't be able to keep watching because it so disturbing. Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, and a contributor who has remained anonymous for fear of retribution, The Act of Killing is an utterly haunting documentary that brings the brutal reality of historical violence into sharp, visceral relief by dressing it up in the pretense of fiction. As a viewer you walk away from the film not only amazed at what the directors managed to pull off, but at the ways that people can compartmentalize themselves, tucking away the horrors that they've either perpetrated or experienced and moving on as if nothing had happened.