SIFF 2013 Notebook: The Act of Killing

Decades after Indonesia‘s 1965 military coup and political purges, Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing paints a disquietingly human portrait of men who rode that conflict to celebrity, wealth, and power. TV journalists fawn over death squad veterans bragging about their kill totals, while control room staff mutter about untouchable madmen and thieves. Senior national politicians congratulate self-described “gangsters” for their contributions to society, and everyone seems to agree that this English word is some kind of synonym for “free men” operating “outside the system”–the ultimate anti-communists! All the while, we watch the aging executioners enjoy warm family lives and colorful clothes and cars as they extort money from shopkeepers, dabble in sham politics, reminisce, and, fatally, try to recapture their glory days on video.