During
Suharto’s military takeover of Indonesia in 1965, more than 500,000 people were murdered in state-sponsored anti-communist purges that lasted months. Families of victims were stigmatised and ostracised, the perpetrators of the war crimes were rewarded, and are still enjoying power. History books airbrush this sordid slaughter.
American filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer has gone where no one has dared to tread in his film The Act of Killing. He gets former executioners, death squad leaders and torturers re-enact their crimes. Not only are they unrepentant, but they boast about their sadism, looking forward eagerly to the stardom they think the film will give them.
We are introduced to gangster-turned-assassin, Anwar Congo who recruits subordinates and accomplices to make his own movie by re-enacting the killings he carried out in the manner of Hollywood movies he loves best.
Congo is a willing participant and his ‘co-actors’ all behave as if they have nothing to hide or be afraid of. What about revenge by children of communists, Oppenheimer asks off-screen. “They won’t dare. We will exterminate them,” is the reply.
Congo takes Oppenheimer to the offices of politicians, mayors, newspaper editors, and leaders of the Pancasila Youth paramilitaries who are more than happy to recount on camera the atrocities they perpetrated half-a-century ago.
After filming each sequence, from dreamy dance numbers to police style investigations to village raids, Oppenheimer lets the wiry Congo and his obese assistant Herman sit down and watch the dailies, as it were, to assess their progress. In these episodes of analysis and planning, Congo is openly facing up to the past for the first time in his life.
Congo admits he has nightmares from “killing people who didn’t want to die” and seems especially troubled by one victim he beheaded who stared at him lifelessly. As the film progresses, the initial appeal of becoming famous by filming his past seems to be replaced by Congo having to confront his past. Will Congo finally flinch?
Oppenheimer started working on the film back in 2003 by interviewing victims’ families, and was forced to improvise after survivors and families of the killed felt it was still unsafe for them to appear in person. You see how raw this wound still is when most of the film crew are credited as ‘Anonymous’.
By departing from standard documentary practice and getting the perpetrators to play victim to their own crimes, Oppenheimer achieves what generations of Indonesians have been held back from: acknowledgement, empathy and dialogue. His film is a stark reminder of how easily humans can go from being ordinary citizens to monsters.
Snubbed by the Oscars, even though it won every other major award, The Act of Killing is important cinema, and will be a benchmark for filmmakers for years to come.
Watch Trailer: