The Look of Silence

The Look of Silence

Festival poster
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
Produced by
Music by
  • Seri Banang
  • Mana Tahan
Cinematography Lars Skree
Edited by Niels Pagh Andersen
Production
company
Distributed by Drafthouse Films (US)
Release dates
  • 28 August 2014 (Venice)
Running time
103 minutes[1]
Country
  • Denmark
  • Finland
  • Indonesia
  • Norway
  • United Kingdom
Language
  • Indonesian
  • Javanese

The Look of Silence is 2014 Danish documentary film directed by Joshua Oppenheimer about the Indonesian killings of 1965–66. The film is the sequel to Oppenheimer's 2012 documentary The Act of Killing. It was executive produced by Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, and Andre Singer.[2]

Release

The film was screened in the official competition at the 71st Venice International Film Festival,[3][4] 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.[5] Since then, it has gone on to win multiple awards, including Best World Documentary (Cinephile Prize) at the Busan International Film Festival,[6] the Grand Prize (DOX Award) at CPH:DOX,[7] the prize for Best Documentary at the Starz Denver Film Festival,[8] a Danish Arts Council Award for outstanding achievement in filmmaking,[9] and the Best Film Award at the One World human rights documentary film festival.[10]

Additionally, the film has screened at the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Zurich Film Festival, and IDFA (International Documentary Festival Amsterdam).

On November 10, 2014, 2,000 people came to the official and public premiere of the film in Jakarta, and on December 10, 2014 - International Human Rights Day - there were 480 public screenings of the film across Indonesia. The screenings of the film in Indonesia has been sponsored by the National Human Rights Commission of Indonesia and the Jakarta Arts Council.

It has been selected to be screened in the Berlinale Special Galas section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015.[11]

Reception

The Look of Silence received largely positive reviews. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 93% rating based on 14 reviews.[12] On Metacritic, the film has a 91 out of 100 rating based on 9 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[13]

References

  1. "THE LOOK OF SILENCE (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 24 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  2. Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (27 August 2014). Act Of Killing sequel The Look Of Silence will hit theaters in 2015. A.V. Club. Retrieved 31 August 2014.
  3. "International competition of feature films". Venice. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  4. "Venice Film Festival Lineup Announced". Deadline. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  5. "Roy Andersson film scoops Venice Golden Lion award". BBC News. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
  6. Patrick Frater. "Busan Festival Announces Vision Awards". Variety.
  7. "Joshua Oppenheimer vinder hovedprisen på CPH:DOX". politiken.dk.
  8. "'Viva la Liberta,' 'Capturing Grace' Win SDFF Awards". Hollywood in Toto.
  9. "Tre af årets danske film udvalgt af Statens Kunstfond". kunst.dk.
  10. "Awarded Films". One World 2015 international human rights documentary film festival. 2015-03-11. Retrieved 2015-03-12.
  11. "Berlinale Special 2015: Films by Weiner and Oppenheimer complete the programme". Berlinale. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  12. "The Look of Silence". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  13. "The Look of Silence". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 24 April 2015.

External links