The Act of Killing
In Indonesia, men who led the 1960s anti-communist killings proudly re-enact their murders as scenes staged in the styles of the movies they love.
Academy Awards, Best Documentary Feature nomination, 2014
The filmmakers invite men who took part in the Indonesian mass killings of the mid 1960s to restage what they did, and the perpetrators, who live as celebrated figures, do so with relish, dressing their crimes in the conventions of gangster films, musicals, and westerns. As the re-enactments proceed, one of them, Anwar Congo, begins to be disturbed by what he has helped bring back to the surface.
The film exposes the fantasy and denial that let killers live with what they have done, and the moment when performance cracks and something like guilt breaks through. For a clinician it is an unsettling study of dissociation, disavowal, and the psychic machinery by which atrocity is kept from feeling. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2014.
Details
- 2012
- Denmark
- Indonesian
- Documentary