Every now and then a film comes along that is so powerful, bold and admirable in its aims and ambitions that you feel the world must sit up and take notice. Joshua Oppenheimer has done it once before with The Act of Killing, and has here repeated that rarest of feats with its companion piece.

As a horrifying and sickeningly widely-accepted massacre is scrutinised, we learn of heartbreaking truths and staggering revelations – with the phrase “history is written by the victor” taken to astounding extremes. Brave, unflinching and utterly riveting, The Look of Silence is absolutely essential cinema.

A harrowing and humanitarian work, the culmination of Oppenheimer’s ten-year effort to let the truth out deserves every superlative that can be thrown at it.

RATING: 5/5

INFORMATION

DIRECTOR: Joshua Oppenheimer

SYNOPSIS: A family that survives a brutal extermination of communists in Indonesia confronts the men responsible for their brother Ramli’s murder.