The Look of Silence

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Denmark, Indonesia, Norway, Finland, UK | Indonesian, Javanese
2014 | 99min | Colour
Subtitles: English
Sunday, Nov 8 TIPA, 11:00 AM

Through Joshua Oppenheimer’s work filming perpetrators of the Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered and the identity of the men who killed him. The youngest brother is determined to break the spell of silence and fear under which the survivors live, and so confronts the men responsible for his brother’s murder – something unimaginable in a country where killers remain in power.

Joshua Oppenheimer

Born in 1974, USA, Joshua Oppenheimer is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he is a partner at the production company Final Cut for Real. Oppenheimer has worked for over a decade with militias, death squads and their victims to explore the relationship between political violence and the public imagination. Educated at Harvard and Central Saint Martins, his debut feature-length film is The Act of Killing (2012). His earlier works include The Globalisation Tapes (2002, produced with Christine Cynn), The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase (1998), These Places We’ve Learned to Call Home (1996), and other shorts. Oppenheimer is artistic director of the International Centre for Documentary and Experimental Film, University of Westminster.

Credits

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Co-Director: Anonymous
Producers: Signe Byrge Sørensen, Anonymous, Kaarle Aho, Torstein Grude, Bjarte Mørner Tveit
Cinematographer: Lars Skree
Editor: Niels Pagh Andersen
Sound: Henrik Garnov
Production Companies: Final Cut for Real, Anonymous, Piraya Film AS, Making Movies Oy

Festival Appearances & Awards

Venice Film Festival 2014 – Grand Jury Prize, Critics Prize (FIPRESCI) Best Film, Online Critics Prize (Mouse d’Oro) Best Film, Human Rights Nights Award
Busan International Film Festival 2014 – Best World Documentary (Cinephile Prize)
CPH:DOX 2014 – Grand Prize (DOX Award)
Denver Film Festival 2014 – Best Documentary
Prize of the Danish Arts Council – 2014
Tromsø International Film Festival 2015 – Don Quixote Prize
Angers Premiers Plans 2015 – Audience Award
True/False Film Festival 2015 – True Life Fund Recipient
Danish Film Academy Award (Robert) for Best Documentary 2015
Danish Film Critics’ Award (Bodil Prize) for Best Documentary 2015