Review of The Act of Killing (2012) by Walter M — 31 Dec 2013

An extraordinary documentary, filmed over many years by Joshua Oppenheimer and his co-directors in Indonesia examining the heroic status afforded death squad and paramilitary figures following the 1960s military coup and subsequent genocide of at least half a million people, under the pretext of being communists.

Oppenheimer weaves many layers of fact and fiction, as the gangsters are given free reign to reenact scenes of their violence and choose to do so in the styles of some of the Hollywood genre films they adored back when they were ticket scalps by day and executioners by night.

Anwar Congo is the most interesting of the killers, and becomes the main focus, his internal struggles and, presumably suppressed conscience, being further brought to the surface through the very act of dramatic reenactment.

This ends in a horrible scene with Congo, still trying to boast of his murders, but now seemingly wracked with guilt, retching at one of his old murder sites. However unforgivably terrible his crimes, the process he goes through is very human, in contrast to some of the other death squad leaders, hollow men now rich and obsessed with collecting "very limited" diamond trinkets or dragged round shopping malls by a spoilt, Westernised teenage daughter.

The film offers no resolution, the paramilitary Pancasila group responsible for many atrocities are still hand in hand with the current Government, but it does at least draw attention to the horror that lies in Indonesia's history and as one killer remarks, candidly shows the world that it was they who were cruel and not the "communists".