The Look of Silence

The Look of Silence follows Adi, an Indonesian optometrist born after the anti-communist massacres of 1965, in which his older brother was killed. As he fits the ageing perpetrators for glasses, he gently but directly asks them about what they did, breaking the silence and denial that have protected them for half a century. The killers boast, deflect, and threaten, while Adi holds their gaze.

The film is a study of mourning that refuses evasion and of the psychic cost of a whole society's disavowal. It shows what it means to seek truth from those who cannot or will not acknowledge it, and how a survivor carries loss that has never been named aloud. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2014 Venice Film Festival.