When the Enemy Lives Next Door

In 1965, the Indonesian government was overthrown in a military coup. Afterward, thousands of branded “communists” (mostly ethnic Chinese and intellectuals) were rounded up and brutally killed by members of the military or government-sanctioned gangs of local thugs. Those responsible for the genocide remain in power today, and for years have not owned up to their crimes against humanity.

Director Joshua Oppenheimer has now released two documentaries that deal with the long-term consequences of the 1965 murders. The first, The Act of Killing, released in 2012, explored the perspective of the men on the winning side of the coup, and the lies they tell to cover their guilt. Oppenheimer had his subjects create their own movie, re-enacting the scenes of their crimes, and finally recasting themselves as the victims, all in an attempt to get the men to admit to the magnitude of suffering they caused.

Oppenheimer’s follow-up, The Look of Silence, examines the opposite perspective — what it’s like to live next door to the people who killed your friends and family. While The Look of Silence is a less visually adventurous documentary than The Act of Killing, it’s no less profound. The film is a powerful and painful examination of the lies people tell to escape responsibility, and what happens when a population in desperate need of healing is denied the chance for reconciliation.

The Look of Silence is the story of Adi, an optometrist, whose brother Ramli was one of the few documented murders in the 1965 killings. Adi uses his optometry business as a tool to find and confront his brother’s killers, asking them questions about their actions, and challenging the official government line that the victims’ slaughters were justifiable.

The responses Adi receives from those he speaks to are chilling both for their content and the nonchalance with which they’re delivered. The accounts given are so horrible that they don’t seem possible, let alone coming from smiling older men with pet monkeys who occasionally sing folk songs for the camera. As with The Act of Killing, Oppenheimer depicts this chilling dichotomy in a way that goes straight to the bone.

There’s a deep sense of haunting in The Look of Silence, which permeates everything from the film’s subjects to the look of the movie and the sound design. Oppenheimer intentionally uses manipulated and enhanced audio and landscapes in a way that displays Indonesia’s natural beauty, but also the heavy atmosphere created by atrocities that have gone unresolved for decades. From an emotional perspective, Adi’s family is marked by the deep pain of losing a son in a way that no family should have to experience, and the fear and sorrow that ordeal has ingrained in them is painfully apparent every time they’re on screen.

On a human rights level, both of Oppenheimer’s films play vital roles in creating a movement for change in Indonesia. In fact, the success of his films, both abroad and in Indonesia itself, have led to beginnings of government acknowledgement of the events of 1965 as crimes against humanity.

On a macro level, however, The Look of Silence is equally important in its examinations of evil, guilt, consequence, and forgiveness. It’s a horrifying document of the cruelty humans are capable of, and the ways we try to justify our sins, especially those that are very clearly unjustified. It’s also an incredible example of the courage and grace to seek reconciliation — which, through Adi’s example, Oppenheimer shows we’re equally capable of. The Look of Silence is required viewing, equal parts frightening and beautiful, much like the landscape it portrays.

WATCH the trailer for The Look of Silence here.

We at Sojourners like talking about films as much as (even more than?) we like watching them. Have you seen The Look of Silence? Grab some popcorn and share your thoughts with friends, colleagues, or us here in the comments!

1) How much, if anything, did you know about the 1965 killings in Indonesia before watching the film? What had you heard?

2) Why do you think the killers Adi speaks to are so easily willing to share the stories of what they did?

3) While the events in The Look of Silence are tied to specific political events, the emotional themes of sin and reconciliation are universal. What issues of systemic oppression go unresolved in your own community?

4) What do you think can be done to help heal issues of violence, oppression and brokenness in our communities, and what can you do to play a role in the healing process?