Review of The Act of Killing (2012) by Manny C — 01 Feb 2014

There are a fair amount of good reasons to see Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing. One reason to not see it: pleasure. There hasn't been a more viscerally affecting film in ages, maybe ever. The subject is genocide, specifically the 1960's extermination in Indonesia of anyone supected of Communism and ethnic Chinese. Half a million lives were claimed. With such heavy subject matter you'd expect that the survivors and victims' stories would be front and center. Instead we get the perspective of the perpetrators who are more than happy to discuss their misdeeds, especially since they are celebrated as heroes by their current government. The praise they get from a perpetually smiling female Indonesian talk show host is chilling.

One of her guests includes Anwar Congo, who casually and meticulously shows us how to snuff out a life with simple garrot wire and woode and joyfully recalls how he utilized his machete. Then Oppenheimer's film takes a harrowing sharp turn when Congo and fellow killer Adi Zulkadry re-enact their killings in any format they choose. That means musical numbers, cross dressing, scenes where they play their own victims and the re-staging of a village assault that leaves its extras traumatized. Oppenheimer calls it a 'documentary of the imagination'. I'd call it a film that rips your heart out.