The Look of Silence

Introduction by Daniel Morgan, Department of Cinema and Media Studies.

Through Joshua Oppenheimer’s work filming perpetrators of the Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered and the identity of the men who killed him. The youngest brother is determined to break the spell of silence and fear under which the survivors live, and so confronts the men responsible for his brother's murder – something unimaginable in a country where killers remain in power.

(Oppenheimer, Denmark, Indonesia, United Kingdom, 2014, digital video, 99 min)

Joshua Oppenheimer is recipient of a MacArthur “Genius Grant” (2015). His debut feature film, The Act of Killing (2012), was named Film of the Year in 2013 by the Guardian and the Sight and Sound Film Poll, and was nominated for the 2014 Academy Award® for Best Documentary. Oppenheimer is Artistic Director of the Centre for Documentary and Experimental Film at the University of Westminster in London.