After Act critically acclaimed and controversial killing , American documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer back with The look of Silence or Senyap . With this latest documentary, Oppenheimer attempts to answer some of the criticisms of act of killing or Jagal . In Jagal , he dragged bloody history of Indonesia in 1965 through the eyes of the murderers of suspected communists. In Senyap , it shed light on the tragedy by presenting the stories of the victims.
Senyap starts with Adi Rukun sitting watching television, watching old interviews between Oppenheimer and murderers of 1965. There sat quietly while he listening. On his face you can see images of the murder of his brother. His eyes shone. His silence deafening.
Senyap said about the survivor's hunger for justice and reconciliation. In this film, Adi Rukun Ramli discovers how his brother was murdered and the identity of the men who killed him.
Adi works as an optometrist who made the tour in the villages north Sumatra, giving better vision of the elderly by providing glasses. He visits elderly are the murderers of his late brother. In their conversation apparently light is intense grilling of the tragedy.
As documentary captures the life naturally 'characters' memorably strong. You can not help falling and admire Rohani's mother and later Adi Ramli. After losing his son, Rohani may seem to look life in the face, but deep down, she never forgets the day when the military took power with his son already wounded away from her for good. She continued to care for his aging, impotent husband, putting on a brave face as if nothing had happened, while for decades with the wound that never heals.
Of course, Oppenheimer did not have the original images of what happened in 1965. It shows no graphic gore, but it draws a picture in our minds showing pictures of animals in strange positions and context. This, in my opinion, successfully created unease among the public. These images somehow explained what had happened in 1965 for the innocent who have been accused as communists, pinched and killed by the military and those who were against the Communist Party.
Oppenheimer presents a documentary that exposes the facts and allows the audience to feel differently about it when the movie ends. Some leave the cinema feeling they need and want to be part of the story correct. Some remain skeptical. Whatever the result, he successfully agitated discussion between media and society.
I noticed in the end credits, there was a lot of anonymous staff involved in the production of Senyap . They were most likely to Indonesians. This itself is a statement that even if there is this documentary, there is still a lot of fear in itself combines the bloody tragedy of 1965. Despite making it big, hopping from one festival to the high level of a film another, Indonesians, or those residing in Indonesia are experiencing difficulty accessing film. Senyap has not fulfilled one of the commercial cinema screens, at least not in the near future. This begs the question, when Indonesia never be ready to face its past history and reality? Adi Rukun and family are only some of many who bear the scars and are continually waiting for reconciliation.
The way I see it, this is a documentary that reminds us never to repeat what happened in 1965 - propaganda that went wild, face no analysis which made us forget what it is to be human and to be human to another.
Senyap won five awards from the Venice Film Festival 2014, including the FIPRESCI Prize, Golden Mouse, Fedeora Award, Special Jury Award and the Rights Prize film Network. It was also one of the candidates for the highest category of the award at the festival, the Golden Lion.
For more information on this documentary, you can visit the website http://thelookofsilence.com . You will not be able to see the trailer on this site because it is blocked by the government.
For more information on the award-winning documentary previous Oppenheimer the act of killing, please visit www.actofkilling.com