The Act of Killing (J. Oppenheimer, C. Cynn, Anonymous, 2013)

Reviewed by Dennis Hansson. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

In October 1st, 1965, a self-proclaimed organization called “The Thirtieth of September Movement” assassinated six army generals in Indonesia, as an attempt to overthrow the government. What followed these assassination is a very dark period in Indonesian history, which often isn’t mentioned in any history books in Indonesia today. The government blamed the assassinations on the Indonesian Communist Party, and began a anti-communist purge, which lead to the murders of more than 500 000 people between the start of the purge in late 1965, and the ending in the early months of 1966. These killings has not got a lot of attention, despite its extremely high death rate, compared to similar events including mass murder and in this documentary, we get to follow Angwar Congo as he is in the making of a movie about these killings.

Angwar Congo was working for the government at the time of the anti-communist purge, with one task: to as effectively and quickly as possible, execute communists. He appreciates his number of executions to over 1000, and he happy talks about his deeds as if they were acceptable. Angwar showed the filmmakers the place were he executed the killings, a rooftop or something similar, and is a central part of the documentary, as we in the remainder of the film get to follow Angwars emotional transformation as he gradually gets insight in his actions in what actually took place back in 1966.

The Act of Killing, in my opinion, is a masterpiece and really deserves the Academy Awards nomination for Best Documentary, perhaps even to win it. The mix between a story with really good and interesting content that shocks you and gets you hooked and engaged, with great cinematography and  beautiful locations with amazing colors makes this one a winner. The journey that we get to come along on with Angwar, from being this brain-washed anti-communist supporter and former purge executioner, to actually that he actually started to feel regret and shame of his actions, is extremely engaging, and there are some very powerful scenes in which they really try to emphasize his remorse by confronting him and than having a very zoomed-in close-up to show his reaction and facial expression. In other scenes they leave more to the eye and mind of the viewer, which demonstrates the more artistic part of the film. For example, they have long scenes where we get to see women dancing outside a giant, hollow, fish, that the women dances into. In the background, you see the nature, and you get more chance to interpret the meaning of the film and that particular scene than you would in a more narrated documentary that drags the viewer in the direction that is wanted.

Since I don’t think there is something as a perfect film or perfect documentary, I can’t give it a 10, but I can give it a 9, which I will do. It is simply to amazing not to watch if you appreciate good documentaries. Honestly, go see it!

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Published:
02.18.14 / 12am
Category:
Films, Santa Barbara Film Festival 2014