THE ACT OF KILLING

THE ACT OF KILLING – A FILM BY JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER

In a country where killers are celebrated as heroes, the filmmakers challenge unrepentant death squad leaders to dramatize their role in genocide. The result is a cinematic fever dream, an unsettling journey deep into the imaginations of mass-murderers and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit.

When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar Congo and his friends were promoted from small-time gangsters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year.

The Act of Killing is about killers who have won, and the sort of society they have built – a journey into the memories and imaginations of the perpetrators.

More film clips on YouTube. Cinematography by Lars Skree. See more documentary work and awards.