THE ACT OF KILLINGdirected by Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous. A filmswelike release. 115 minutes (theatrical version) / 159 minutes (director’s cut). Subtitled. Opens Friday (July 19). For venues and times, see listings.
The Act Of Killing is not an easy documentary to watch.
It’s actually quite horrible, with long sequences of former Indonesian death squad members gleefully recreating their genocidal acts as musicals and film noir, encouraged by documentarians Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and their Indonesian co-directors who cannot be credited for fear of reprisal.
But through art comes illumination, as Oppenheimer explains.
“I started this film in collaboration with a community of survivors,” he says over the phone from the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology in Liverpool, his latest stop on a UK tour of the film.
“I felt entrusted with a task of world-historical importance, which was exposing the regime of fear and impunity built upon the victory of the perpetrators. [It shows] what happens when [victors] construct their own morality to justify what they’ve done to themselves and to their whole society.”
Interviewing dozens of mass murderers – now older and considerably less intimidating, of course – Oppenheimer noticed something curious.
“Every perpetrator I met was boasting about what he did, eager to take me to the places where he killed, show me how he killed,” he says. “They launched into these spontaneous re-enactments. I started to realize that if I could understand what the function of this boasting is, how these men want to be seen, I could expose the nature of the whole regime.”
Oppenheimer’s thesis is as simple as it is horrible.
“It’s a way of reassuring themselves that what they’ve done was right,” he says. “If you or I had killed and gotten away with it and been allowed to just decide for ourselves that what we’d done [was right], we would – because otherwise you have to look in the mirror every morning and see a mass murderer. The boasting, the celebration of what they’ve done – it appears to be a sign that they lack remorse, but it turns out to be the opposite. And when you put that boasting under a microscope, it’s not surprising that you find the killers’ conscience.”
After interviewing more than 40 perpetrators, Oppenheimer met Anwar Congo, who became the “star” of The Act Of Killing. Congo’s fussiness and control issues while shooting the recreations lead the documentary to its darkest and most psychologically compelling places.
“I saw it as the production of an allegory for impunity, and he in fact was trying to run away from his pain,” Oppenheimer recalls. “It turned out that going into his pain and showing how the killing has destroyed him – not necessarily coming to terms with it, but recognizing the real meaning of it – somehow provides the most effective exposé possible. [It’s] the ultimate condemnation of this regime, because the men who themselves ought to be enjoying the fruits of their victory are destroyed by it, by what they’ve done.”
The Act Of Killing is not about catharsis, then, but about confrontation.
“Catharsis implies release,” Oppenheimer explains, “and it’s not a release for the audience or for Anwar. He’s trying to vomit out the ghosts that haunt him at the end, only to find that nothing will come up because the ghosts are his past. He is what haunts him he’ll never escape it.”
Interview Clips
Joshua Oppenheimer on the impact his documentary is having in Indonesia:
Oppenheimer on the genesis of the project:
Oppenheimer on forcing Anwar Congo to confront his own past:
Oppenheimer on the different cuts of The Act Of Killing — TIFF is screening the director’s cut daily at 2:45 pm, and the 116-minute festival version at other times:
normw@nowtoronto.com | @wilnervision
