The Act of Killing, 2013.
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer.
Starring Anwar Congo, Herman Koto and Ibrahim Sinik.
SYNOPSIS:
Documentary following former Indonesian death squad leaders restaging their acts of killing for the camera.
In 1965, the Indonesian government was overthrown by its military. The new leaders hired gangsters to execute any of the country’s remaining ‘Communists’. Given free reign, these pseudo-Pacinos and Brandos extorted innocent people and killed those who didn’t pay. They committed genocide and won. Today, these mass murderers are celebrated as heroes. The Act of Killing follows these victors.
One is called Anwar Congo. Even his name reeks of death. He’s old and alarmingly endearing. His overweight, permenantly sweating No.2 is Herman Koto. He follows Congo around like a lapdog. Joshua Oppenheimer often holds on the silent moments between them. Koto appears to consciously mirror his master’s body language.
A portrait is built up. The regime they slaughtered for is still in power. They enjoy the life of minor celebrities, albeit through fear rather than adoration. They show no sign of remorse of regret, save the recurring nightmares that haunt Congo’s sleep.
Oppenheimer asks him to direct himself and his friends in reenacting how they killed ‘Communists’. It begins with simple demonstrations, of how Congo would tie wire round people’s necks for the most effective dispatch. Then Oppenheimer makes him watch the just-shot footage. “I would never wear white for the killings,” is his only reflection. So they reshoot the scenes, but with a bigger and bigger production value.
The morbidly fascinating thread throughout, and what ties this so uncomfortably to the medium in which The Act of Killing is viewed, is that Congo’s a movie buff. He began his criminal life scalping tickets outside the cinema. His favourite genre was the gangster film and he based his look on Al Pacino, Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley. He reveals his famed method of execution, the wire technique, was learned from a movie.
Cinema is embedded in this documentary. Not just as Congo’s inspiration, nor as the narrative thread of refilming violence, but in the way Oppenheimer screens the footage back to his subjects, the mechanism of spectatorship. At its most extreme, we are watching Oppenheimer watch Congo watch Congo shoot a film. It’s only with this separation from the act that elicits an emotional response. Cinema, for him, and possibly a lot of us, is more real than experience itself. It’s one extravagant form of therapy.
Other scenes have far more real terrors. One of the death squad killers reminsces about when they’d “cram wood into their anus until they died” or that it’d be “Hell for you, but Heaven on Earth for me” when speaking about raping a 14-year-old girl.
The Act of Killing is a deeply uncomfortable, utterly compelling film. And it’s neither the Executive Producer credits for ‘Werner Herzog’ or ‘Errol Morris’ that speak of its evident bravery and importance, but the amount of the crew who wished to remain ‘Anonymous’.
Flickering Myth Rating: Film ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★
The Act of Killing is out at select UK cinemas now.
Oliver Davis is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors. You can follow him on Twitter @OliDavis.
Originally published July 12, 2013. Updated November 28, 2022.
