The Act of Killing
★★★★★
Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn & Anonymous
(2013)
Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn's masterful documentary ominously lists one other director as Anonymous. "Anonymous", in fact, shows up many times in titles for The Act of Killing; A reenactment of sorts and in part which is used to jaw dropping effect as swift attack on the genocide and communistic purge which wiped out an estimated 600,000 people in Indonesia between 1964 and 1965. A handful of the vigilante killers used by the government are put on "lens trial" by Oppenheimer and Cynn after they both found a sincere honesty in the men while interviewing them openly about the killings. The masterstroke is allowing the men carte blanche in re creating their crimes for the camera how ever they may see fit.
The most chilling aspect, which relies on the men and their unashamed pride in the crimes they have committed is fiercely realised in the first 30 minutes of the two and half hour version of The Act of Killing which I witnessed. I and don't call it a witnessing lightly. Anwar Congo, the most featured of the members of the old Pancasila Youth, takes us to where he strangled an uncounted number men women and children with a piece of wire and length of wood. His explanation is mirrored in the final moments of the film with a brilliant revisit to the same place by the film makers. This scene alone is worth the praise that this remarkable though uncomfortable documentary has been receiving but it shows not only a beautiful change in its characters but also within the genre of documentary film making.
The film which the self proclaimed "Gangsters" choose to make varies from straight reenactments to elaborate musical numbers; Colourful, violent and revealing in equal measure. We soon get down to the gore of it all where the men retreat to a studio to let the blood run free with prosthetics and make up and have to act as the victims in their own scenes. This hollywood style version also gives us The Act of Killing's most harrowing moment when a producer tries desperately to feed the directors a new story line, itself a reenactment of his own family and their murder when he was a child; Perhaps even by the very men he is addressing.
As a crafted historical record of the atrocities within, The Act of Killing almost purposely fails. It's a criticism that the filmmakers have felt around the world from some more conventional film goers. It's something that its two producers, Errol Morris and Werner Herzog are more than used to; But like the best work of Morris and Herzog, what this film does is place you directly in front of the fears, regrets and choices of the people who have taken life away so easily. Perhaps this is why The Act of Killing is such a monumentally difficult film to watch, review or dissect; It is so full of admiration for mystery of why we create and bursting with a savage hatred of the terrible nature in the worst of us all.
