An Indonesian man with a communist background named Ramli was brutally murdered when the "Communist" purge occurred in 1965. His remaining family members lived in fear and silence until the making of this documentary. Adi, a brother of his, decided to revisit the horrific incident and visited the men who were responsible for the killings and one survivor of the purge. These meetings uncovered sadistic details of the murders and exposed raw emotions and reactions of the killers' family members about what happened in the past - much to Adi's disappointment.

The Look of Silence poster

The Look of Silence (2014)

★ 7.8/10 September 11, 2014 100 min

DocumentaryHistory

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer

An Indonesian man with a communist background named Ramli was brutally murdered when the "Communist" purge occurred in 1965. His remaining family members lived in fear and silence until the making of this documentary. Adi, a brother of his, decided to revisit the horrific incident and visited the men who were responsible for the killings and one survivor of the purge. These meetings uncovered sadistic details of the murders and exposed raw emotions and reactions of the killers' family members about what happened in the past - much to Adi's disappointment.

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Trailer

Director

Joshua Oppenheimer Joshua Oppenheimer

Cast

Adi Rukun Adi Rukun Self M.Y. Basrun M.Y. Basrun Self Amir Hasan Amir Hasan Self (archive footage) Inong Inong Self Kemat Kemat Self Joshua Oppenheimer Joshua Oppenheimer Self (voice) Amir Siahaan Amir Siahaan Self Ted Yates Ted Yates Self (archive footage)

User Reviews (2)

Frank Ochieng
Frank Ochieng October 19, 2015

Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer was instrumental in delivering one of the most harrowing and heart-breaking documentaries in 2013’s The Act of Killing. As an impressive result of the critically acclaimed documentarian’s gut-wrenching narrative, The Act of Killing deservedly earned an Academy Award nomination for its unsettling truth and revelation. Killing concentrated on the frightening accounts involving the 1965 Indonesian genocide of over one million slaughtered people earmarked with “communist” labeling. Well Oppenheimer ‘s The Act of Killing astutely offers a charged follow-up to this tremendous tragic tale with the revealing and devastatingly insightful The Look of Silence. The sentimental cynicism is pretty much as unbelievable and incredulous as previously uncovered in Killing. This time, however, Oppenheimer does not focus on the mass destruction of imperiled huma…

CinemaSerf
CinemaSerf September 15, 2026
★ 7/10

Indonesia in the mid-1960s was a dangerous place to live. With the government overthrown by the military, much of the country was left in the hands of butchers who used a fear of Communism to excuse atrocities that reputedly saw one million people slaughtered. One of those killed was Ramli and now his brother, an optician called Adi, has set about trying to help the aged with their sight problems whilst getting to the people who were responsible for this genocide but that remain largely unaccused and certainly unpunished. There is something penetratingly unassuming about this man - who does look much younger than his 44 years - as he mixes his professional responsibilities with his quizzing, and perhaps it's that boyishness that helps him get some remarkably frank responses from the commanders and politicians who were responsible for the killings at the infamous Snake River and from thos…