The Look of Silence (2014)

Yet again, I chose a viewing based on what was about to drop off my Netflix list. It's another documentary with more talking than anything else, but at least it's on a subject I knew almost nothing about.

This is a companion piece to 2012's The Act of Killing, similarly directed by Joshua Oppenheimer (no relation) and an anonymous partner. Here we follow optometrist Adi Rukun, sometimes providing his services or hanging with his cheerful children, but mostly interviewing older Indonesians who remember the anti-communist purge of the mid-'60s, along with younger relatives. Many of the seniors had a hand in the massacre of hundreds of thousands and were never penalized for it, because they had the government's blessing then and ever since. Adi also watches an earlier video of two men who had killed his brother.

We don't see any violence, corpses, or wounds. The only visual (not counting subtitles) I'd call disturbing is a bony, variously disabled, mostly naked centenarian survivor who's seen better days. But believe me, the talk about violence is enough. As awful as the track record of communist regimes is, it's hard to imagine one harsher to alleged opponents than this. Let's just say the methods of treatment before and after death were not consistently systematic, and many were designed for extra pain and humiliation.

Perhaps the most disturbing part is that none of the participants express any remorse. Some, including the more Islamic, insist they had little choice, still believe propaganda for vindication, and get mad at Adi's line of inquiry. Others seem to feel amused at their own barbarity and expect listeners to agree. Their children and grandchildren are shocked at new details, especially if they previously lied. At best, the killers refuse introspection so they can continue to live with themselves.

Not that Adi and other family members of victims show much more emotion. They have a firmly negative view of the past atrocities and their present neighbors, but they don't seem to get worked up over it. I guess nearly half a century will do that to you.

One thing's for sure: I will not visit Indonesia until all these unrepentant killers and enablers are dead or in prison, perhaps after an obvious regime change. If the purpose of TLoS is to make us sore, then mission accomplished.