The Look of Silence

Adi Rukun, a middle-aged Indonesian optometrist, has lived his whole life in an environment shaped by the unending grief his parents feel over the brutal murder of his older brother in the 1965 Indonesian Communist Purge, which occurred two years before Adi's birth. He watches extra footage from Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing project, which includes video of the men who killed his brother, and decides to visit and interview some of the killers and their collaborators—which turn out to include his uncle—while testing their eyesight. Although none of the killers expresses any remorse, the daughter of one of them is clearly shaken when she hears, apparently for the first time, the details of the killings. Interspersed between the confrontations are scenes of Adi's elderly mother and almost deaf and blind father.

Out of concern for their safety, many members of the film's Indonesian crew are credited only as "Anonymous".

The film was screened in the official competition at the 71st Venice International Film Festival,^[6][7] where it won the Grand Jury Prize, the International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI), the Italian online critics award (Mouse d'Oro), the European Film Critics Award (FEDEORA), as well as the Human Rights Nights Award.^[8] Since then, it has gone on to win multiple awards, including Best World Documentary (Cinephile Prize) at the Busan International Film Festival,^[9] the Grand Prize (DOX Award) at CPH:DOX,^[10] the prize for Best Documentary at the Starz Denver Film Festival,^[11] a Danish Arts Council Award for outstanding achievement in filmmaking,^[12] and the Best Film Award at the One World human rights documentary film festival.^[13]

On 10 December 2014, International Human Rights Day, there were 480 public screenings of the film across Indonesia, including a premiere screening in Jakarta attended by 2000 people. The screenings of the film in Indonesia has been sponsored by the National Human Rights Commission of Indonesia and the Jakarta Arts Council.^{[citation needed]}

It was selected for screening in the Berlinale Special Galas section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015.^[14]

In February 2016, Oppenheimer, along with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, screened the film for members of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and their House counterparts, officials from the Department of State, and members of the White House National Security Council staff. Oppenheimer hoped the Oscar buzz the film was generating would pressure the US government to formally acknowledge its collusion in the killings.^[15][16][17]

After its theatrical release, the film aired on US television as part of the PBS series POV.

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Critical response

The Look of Silence received critical acclaim. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 96% approval rating, and an average rating of 8.8/10, based on 142 reviews. The website's critical consensus states, "The Look of Silence delivers a less shocking – yet just as terribly compelling – companion piece to Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing".^[18] On Metacritic, the film has a 92 out of 100 rating based on 29 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[19] On 14 January 2016, the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.^[5]

Awards and nominations

As of March 2016, The Look of Silence has won 70 international awards, including the following:

More information Award, Date of ceremony ...

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipients and nominees	Result
Academy Awards[5]	28 February 2016	Best Documentary Feature		Nominated
Austin Film Critics Association[20]	29 December 2015	The Best Documentary		Won
Berlin International Film Festival[21]	16 February 2015	Peace Film Prize		Won
Bodil Awards[22]	28 February 2015	Best Documentary		Won
Boston Society of Film Critics[23]	6 December 2015	Best Foreign Language Film		Won
Busan International Film Festival[24]	11 October 2014	Busan Cinephile Award		Won
Calgary Underground Film Festival 2015[25]	23 April 2015	Jury Awards Best Documentary Feature		Won
Camerimage 2015[26]	21 November 2015	Golden Frog—Grand Prix	Lars Skree	Won
Cinema Eye Honors[27]	13 January 2016	Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking		Won
		Outstanding Achievement in Direction		Won
		Outstanding Achievement in Production		Won
CPH:DOX 2014[28]	14 November 2014	DOX:AWARD		Won
Danish Film Academy/Robert Award[29]	1 February 2015	Best Long Documentary		Won
Denver Film Festival 2014[30]	23 November 2014	Best Documentary		Won
European Film Awards[31]	12 December 2015	Best Documentary		Nominated
Gotham Awards 2015[32]	30 November 2015	Best Documentary		Won
Göteborg International Film Festival 2015[33]	31 January 2015	Dragon Award Best Nordic Documentary		Won
London Film Critics' Circle[34]	17 January 2016	Film of the Year		Nominated
		Documentary of the Year		Nominated
		Foreign Language Film of the Year		Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association	6 December 2015	Best Documentary		Runner-up
Nordisk Panorama – Nordic Short & Doc Film Festival[35]	22 September 2015	Audience Award		Won
Online Film Critics Society Award[36]	13 December 2015	The Best Documentary		Won
Prague One World Festival[37]	11 March 2015	The Best Film Award		Won
The Ridenhour Prizes[38]	22 March 2016	The Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize		Won
RiverRun International Film Festival[39]	26 April 2015	Best Director (Documentary)	Joshua Oppenheimer	Won
Satellite Awards	21 February 2016	Best Documentary Film		Won
Sheffield International Documentary Festival[40]	15 June 2015	Audience Award		Won
Sofia International Film Festival[41]	15 March 2015	Best Documentary		Won
South by Southwest Film Festival[42]	21 March 2015	Audience Awards Festival Favorites		Won
Spirit Awards[43]	27 February 2016	Best Documentary		Won
Subversive Film Festival 2015[44]	12 May 2015	Wild Dreamer Award		Won
Tromsø International Film Festival[45]	17 January 2015	FICC Award/Don Quixote Prize		Won
True/False Film Festival[46]	4 May 2015	True Life Award	Adi Rukun	Won
Venice International Film Festival[47]	6 September 2014	Grand Jury Prize		Won
		FIPRESCI Award		Won
		Mouse d'Oro Award		Won
		Fedeora Award		Won
		Human Rights Nights Award		Won
Victoria Film Festival[48]	15 May 2015	Best Documentary		Won
Vilnius International Film Festival[49]	2 April 2015	Best Director (Baltic Gaze)	Joshua Oppenheimer	Won

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