# The Look of Silence

The Look of Silence (Indonesian: Senyap, "Silence") is a 2014 internationally co-produced documentary film directed by Joshua Oppenheimer about the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66. The film is a companion piece to his 2012 documentary The Act of Killing. Executive producers were Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, and Andre Singer. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 88th Academy Awards.

## Overview

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".

## Release

The film was screened in the official competition at the 71st Venice International Film Festival, 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. Since then, it has gone on to win multiple awards, including Best World Documentary (Cinephile Prize) at the Busan International Film Festival, the Grand Prize (DOX Award) at CPH:DOX, the prize for Best Documentary at the Starz Denver Film Festival, a Danish Arts Council Award for outstanding achievement in filmmaking, and the Best Film Award at the One World human rights documentary film festival.
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.
It was selected for screening in the Berlinale Special Galas section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015.
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.
After its theatrical release, the film aired on US television as part of the PBS series POV.

## Reception
### Critical response

The Look of Silence received critical acclaim. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 98% approval rating, and an average rating of 8.8/10, based on 136 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". On Metacritic, the film has a 92 out of 100 rating based on 29 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". On 14 January 2016, the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

### Awards and nominations

As of March 2016, The Look of Silence has won 70 international awards, including the following:
| Award | Date of Ceremony | Category | Recipients and Nominees | Result |
| Academy Awards | 28 February 2016 | Best Documentary Feature | | Nominated |
| Austin Film Critics Association | 29 December 2015 | The Best Documentary | | Won |
| Berlin International Film Festival | 16 February 2015 | Peace Film Prize | | Won |
| Bodil Awards | 28 February 2015 | Best Documentary | | Won |
| Boston Society of Film Critics | 6 December 2015 | Best Foreign Language Film | | Won |
| Busan International Film Festival | 11 October 2014 | Busan Cinephile Award | | Won |
| Calgary Underground Film Festival 2015 | 23 April 2015 | Jury Awards Best Documentary Feature | | Won |
| Camerimage 2015 | 21 November 2015 | Golden Frog—Grand Prix | Lars Skree | Won |
| Cinema Eye Honors | 13 January 2016 | Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking | | Won |
| Cinema Eye Honors | 13 January 2016 | Outstanding Achievement in Direction | | Won |
| Cinema Eye Honors | 13 January 2016 | Outstanding Achievement in Production | | Won |
| CPH:DOX 2014 | 14 November 2014 | DOX:AWARD | | Won |
| Danish Film Academy/Robert Award | 1 February 2015 | Best Long Documentary | | Won |
| Denver Film Festival 2014 | 23 November 2014 | Best Documentary | | Won |
| European Film Awards | 12 December 2015 | Best Documentary | | Nominated |
| Gotham Awards 2015 | 30 November 2015 | Best Documentary | | Won |
| Göteborg International Film Festival 2015 | 31 January 2015 | Dragon Award Best Nordic Documentary | | Won |
| London Film Critics' Circle | 17 January 2016 | Film of the Year | | Nominated |
| London Film Critics' Circle | 17 January 2016 | Documentary of the Year | | Nominated |
| London Film Critics' Circle | 17 January 2016 | 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 | 22 September 2015 | Audience Award | | Won |
| Online Film Critics Society Award | 13 December 2015 | The Best Documentary | | Won |
| Prague One World Festival | 11 March 2015 | The Best Film Award | | Won |
| The Ridenhour Prizes | 22 March 2016 | The Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize | | Won |
| RiverRun International Film Festival | 26 April 2015 | Best Director (Documentary) | Joshua Oppenheimer | Won |
| Satellite Awards | 21 February 2016 | Best Documentary Film | | Won |
| Sheffield International Documentary Festival | 15 June 2015 | Audience Award | | Won |
| Sofia International Film Festival | 15 March 2015 | Best Documentary | | Won |
| South by Southwest Film Festival | 21 March 2015 | Audience Awards Festival Favorites | | Won |
| Spirit Awards | 27 February 2016 | Best Documentary | | Won |
| Subversive Film Festival 2015 | 12 May 2015 | Wild Dreamer Award | | Won |
| Tromsø International Film Festival | 17 January 2015 | FICC Award/Don Quixote Prize | | Won |
| True/False Film Festival | 4 May 2015 | True Life Award | Adi Rukun | Won |
| Venice International Film Festival | 6 September 2014 | Grand Jury Prize | | Won |
| Venice International Film Festival | 6 September 2014 | FIPRESCI Award | | Won |
| Venice International Film Festival | 6 September 2014 | Mouse d'Oro Award | | Won |
| Venice International Film Festival | 6 September 2014 | Fedeora Award | | Won |
| Venice International Film Festival | 6 September 2014 | Human Rights Nights Award | | Won |
| Victoria Film Festival | 15 May 2015 | Best Documentary | | Won |
| Vilnius International Film Festival | 2 April 2015 | Best Director (Baltic Gaze) | Joshua Oppenheimer | Won |