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'The Act of Killing' by Joshua Oppenheimer

Film Review

By Dark MagicianPublished 4 years ago 8 min read
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Summary

Medan, Indonesia, 1965.

With the instigation of governmental paramilitary force, Indonesian ‘Gangster’, Anwar Congo, is responsible for the mass killing of thousands of communists and ethnic Chinese.

Joshua Oppenheimer, in association with the Danish Institute of Film, presents to us in his critically acclaimed documentary, the ‘Act of Killing’, a film in which Oppenheimer grants Anwar and his gangster comrades the opportunity to cinematically recreate their historical killing scenes, in order to leave behind an accurate portrayal of this Indonesian conflict for future generations.

Through the process of the documentary we begin to see the struggle of Anwar to come to terms with his past terrible acts. In the revisiting of these killing scenes, Anwar subjects himself to the position of his victims through the pretence of artistic licence. The powerful re-enactment of Anwar’s nightmarish deeds offers up to the audience the chance to see his political violence in action. What culminates is a powerful, terrifying and sometimes somewhat surreal unfolding of the recreation of these historical events.

Overview

In 2012, documentary film maker Joshua Oppenheimer, in association with the Danish Film Institute and Final Cut for Real productions, co-directed this critically acclaimed piece, ‘The Act of Killing’ . The documentary brings to light the largely forgotten military regime in 1960’s Indonesia , where, via the use of para-military forces and Indonesian ‘Gangsters’, the massacre and politicide of thousands of union communists and ethnic Chinese took place.

Oppenheimer’s documentary centres around one Indonesian Gangster in particular, Anwar Congo, an infamous figure responsible for the deaths of possibly thousands of communists. Oppenheimer offers Anwar and his gangster comrades the opportunity to recreate their acts of killing by re-enacting the historical scenes, ‘in whichever ways they wished’, and then documenting the sequential processes. The documentary gives the audience insight into the minds of these actors via their conversations surrounding the retelling and revisiting of these events. The finished article is a very power and sometimes terrifying account of, ultimately, Anwar’s struggle to come to terms with his acts of killing.

Aside from following Anwar and his gangster friends, the film also spends some time focusing on the largest paramilitary organisation in Indonesia, the Pancasila Youth. This non-governmental, legitimised paramilitary of ‘gangsters’, has an estimated three million members. The Pemuda Pancasila Youth also played a large role in the politicide of millions of Indonesian left wing communists and ethnic Chinese.

Body of the Film

The body of the film largely follows Anwar and his comrades, in which we see them assume many cinematic roles in their attempt to recreate their historical killing scenes. Anwar and his friends go to great artistic lengths to retell their version of these historical events, with makeup and prosthetics, to wearing various colourful costumes in different settings and locations. Some of the scenes and locations are visually stunning, dreamlike. One scene at the opening of the film is exceptionally noteworthy. Filmed by a riverside, several dancing girls emerge from a giant fish structure to a peaceful hymn song. In another similar scene the same dancing girls glide to hymn music, set in the beautiful lush Indonesian forest to the background of a large waterfall. In this scene we see Anwar and his main compadre, Herman Koto, swaying to the peaceful hymn song, arms stretched to the sky, as if they have just arrived in heaven itself. This beautiful surreal scene belies the true nature of the documentary’s topic. Genocide.

Early on in the film, in conversation with his friend Herman, Anwar states that, ‘this is our history and we have to show it’, “so in the future people will remember”, “this is who we are”.

Anwar takes us to a place above what is now a shop, to a concrete courtyard, where he explains that this was the place he brought many people (Communists) to die. To be murdered. Here he demonstrates how he would use a strip of wire bent around a metal post, then wrapped around his victim’s neck he would pull a piece of wood attached to the other end of the wire. He states he would use this “system” of strangulation to avoid the terrible smell of blood that beating his victims to death would create.

“There’s many ghosts here, because many people were killed here”

Here in the space where Anwar killed, he tells us how he has. “…tried to forget all this” , with music, dancing, drugs and alcohol. Suddenly, in a surreal moment of unpredictability, with the metal wire wrapped loosely around his neck, Anwar begins to sing and dance in the courtyard.

The documentary spends some time focusing on the Pancasila Youth, one of Indonesia’s biggest paramilitary organisations. The film introduces us to the leader of the Pancasila Youth, Yapto Soerjosoemarno. We are told that the Pancasila Youth has 3 million members. Yapto is filmed speaking to a large crowd of much fan fair. He exclaims to the crowd, that if the Pancasila youth are a terrorist organisation, then he is the biggest gangster of them all. Yapto claims that the Pancasila are “heroes” for “exterminating” the left wing neo-communists. When asked in the film, ‘how did the Pancasila exterminate the communists?’, he simply replies, “We killed them all”.

An important theme running throughout the documentary is the influence (as we are told), that western/American film culture has had over Anwar and his gangster comrades. Anwar takes the film crew to an old haunt, a cinema where he worked and explains how he made money here (scalping tickets) because the American films were so popular. "But when the communists were strong, they demanded a ban on the films", he states. The gangsters would lose money. Anwar then states he would take Communists to a paramilitary office to interrogate his victims and to kill them, in the same frame of mind as the American film actors he had just watched. He states: “it’s as if we were killing happily”.

At his house, Anwar watches back the clip of himself demonstrating the killing in the courtyard with the metal wire. He is asked how he feels watching this clip back, to which he replies: “Back then, I felt more free”. Anwar attributes his freeness to kill on the influence of the ‘sadistic’ American movies he watched. He claims he was influenced by films starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and John Wayne westerns.

“And you know where I get my inspiration for it?” “I always watched the gangster films – where they always killed with wire”.

Later on in the film, during a crucial conversation with an old killing comrade, Adi Zulkadry, Anwar exposes the terrible guilt he is hiding. Whilst fishing together at a riverside jetty both men discuss the possibility of apology, of forgiveness. Anwar confesses to his friend, that he is disturbed in his sleep by the memory of killing so many people with the “wire” and watching them die. Here we are given a glimpse past the façade of Anwar’s denial, into the reality of how his deeds are manifesting, piercing through his conscious gangster exterior.

There are many disturbing scenes throughout the film. Anwar has his throat cut, his head cut off from a life like dummy representation of himself. Surreal, ghoulish scenes where Herman is feeding Anwar his own flesh to his freshly cut off head. One scene involves a big cast re-enactment in a small village, reproducing the terrifying horror of slaughter and burning, seen in the eyes of the children actors who can hardly be asked to comprehend the true reality of these past historical events.

In a penultimate killing scene, Anwar takes on the role of victim to his greatest weapon, the “wire”. Here he is violently interrogated, then blindfolded. The wire is wrapped around his neck. Anwar chokes and soon waves his hand to stop. He exclaims: “I can’t do that again”. A luxury never afforded to his victims. Later, when watching back this scene, it is pointed out to Anwar that the terror that he felt in recreating this scene was worse for his victims. At this point, Anwar breaks down… “But I can feel it… I can really feel it”.

“I did this to so many people…”

Conclusion

Many themes run throughout the documentary’s narrative, genocide, politics and violence. Perhaps the most striking illumination is the level of denial displayed towards the ramifications of these events, existing on all sides, still today. In giving the opportunity to Anwar to recreate the killing scenes of his past, Oppenheimer manages to capture the powerful sequential process of Anwar’s juvenile gangster façade, as it crumbles into dust. The adolescent way in which Anwar and Herman approach the filmmaking is indicative of the influence the glamour of western/American films has had upon their behaviours. It is as if it is all a game, a pretence. All acting. Yet at the same time, the reality of their deeds once committed, that which lies beneath, is all too real to come to terms with.

The terrifying recreation of these events are sometimes visually stunning, and at other times surreal or bizarre. It is hard to not feel that the manifestation of these scenes are in essence the representations of Anwar’s dreams. His nightmares. Ultimately, we witness a once revered gangster confronted with the reality of his deeds. In the court yard where we first see Anwar singing and dancing, celebrating, we are now left with a silhouette of a man, standing at the door way, physically sick with the crushing realisation of his acts of killing.

Bibliography

Oppenheimer, J. ‘The Act of Killing’, Final Cut for Real DK, Det Danske Filminstitut 2012. http://www.actofkilling.com/.

Thaler, K. ‘Foreshadowing Future Slaughter: From the Indonesian Killings 1965-1966 to 1974-1999 Genocide in East Timor’, IAGS, Genocide Studies Prevention: An International Journal 2012

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