In this chilling and groundbreaking documentary, former Indonesian death squad leaders reenact their real-life mass killings in the style of various film genres, from gangster epics to musicals. As they recreate their past atrocities, the line between reality and performance blurs, exposing the lingering impact of Indonesia’s 1965-66 anti-communist purge and the unsettling psychology of its perpetrators.
L'atto di uccidere, The Act of Killing - Der Akt des Tötens, O Ato de Matar, Tapatöö, De dödade om natten, I praxi tou fonou, Az ölés aktusa, Scena zbrodni, O Acto de Matar, L'acte de tuer, 액트 오브 킬링, The act of killing - Directors Cut, El acto de matar, Indonésie 1965 - Permis de tuer, The Act of killing - Le génocide impuni, Watch The Act of Killing: The Director's Cut, アクト・オブ・キリング, The Act of Killing - L'Acte de Tuer, Způsob zabíjení, The Act of Killing - L'atto di uccidere, Öldürme Eylemi, Акт убийства, 杀戮演绎, Η Πράξη του Φόνου, He tappoivat öisin, Акт на убийство, Акт вбивства, 殺人一舉, Akt zabitia, 殺人凶戲, ฆาตกรรมจำแลง, O Ato De Matar
USA Telluride Film Festival 
Canada Toronto International Film Festival 
Denmark Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival 
Indonesia 
Sweden15 Denmark 
12 
UK15 
Netherlands16 USANR 
Norway 
16 
Portugal 
South Korea15 
Greece 
Ireland15 
JapanR15+ Netherlands16 Canada Denmark Greece Indonesia Ireland Japan Netherlands Norway Portugal South Korea Sweden UK USA
With the year drawing to a close I think it is safe to say that watching The Act of Killing has been the most profound viewing experience of 2013 for me.
My country has a troubled relationship with Indonesia. We have colonized and exploited that country for a long time in the past. For Indonesian people here, that is still an open wound. The historical significance of that period for people living in Indonesia, however, is not something that many people of this generation are aware of, as brutal and demeaning as that period was.
The murders of 1 million communists and Chinese in 1965, however, is something instilled in the Indonesian psyche and is still a big part of…
The documentarian-subject relationship can be a complicated one. I can't begin to fathom just how complex and tenuous director Joshua Oppenheimer's feelings must be for Anwar Congo, one of the most charismatic, sincere, accessible, affable... monsters... you'll ever see on screen.
Strikes a blow for the ecstatic truth.
Long after watching this I am still at a loss for words and for feeling, which translates to immense praise for this documentary because its topics should be anything but. Covering the Indonesian genocide from, notably, the perspective of the perpetrators, Oppenheimer (the director of this film) convinces them to retell their stories and even re-enact their slaughter through making a film. I couldn't believe that these people were tricked by Oppenheimer until I realized, actually they know exactly what's going on. They understand they are to be filmed reminiscing upon choking people, stabbing people, beheading people, and much, much worse, and they are happy to share this with the rest of the world because to them they are right…
When you feel like vomiting but your throat is stuck and your stomach is empty, the choking sensation, the hideous noise you make arrkggrggh like a tortured man on his dying breath, that's your mind punishing your body, that's guilt, that's shame, all mixed with bile and disgusting phlegm rushing onto the surface, demanding to be released at once -- suppress it, delay it, but you cannot deny it, because no matter how much cold-blooded violence we had proved to be capable of, in the end, we are still human beings, after all.
"your acting was great, but you have to stop crying."
executive produced by Werner Herzog and Errol Morris, but the dominant influence to Joshua Oppenheimer's meta-narrative of atrocities is... Hirokazu Kore-eda's "After Life"? with a touch of Sacha Baron Cohen. or maybe it's like if the nazis won World War II, and then Abbas Kiarostami made a film about Hitler as a haunted old man. whatever, reductive movie math is fun.
Oppenheimer preys on the seemingly proud executioners responsible for the deaths of more than a million "communists" when Indonesia's military wrested power from the government in 1965. what happens when the bad guys win? how does life go on? unfocused and just shy of greatness, THE ACT OF KILLING…
unable to process.
Joshua Oppenheimer: "Actually, the people you tortured felt far worse, because you knew it's only a film. They knew they were being killed."
From what I am told, the original conception to Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary was suppose to focus on the victims (relatives) of the mass extermination but in a country where the people responsible for the atrocities are still in power, he was not granted permission. Instead he turned his lens to the perpetrators of the mayhem, of which are still celebrated as patriotic heroes whom will be ed in their country's history. What unfolds after is a raw and chilling experience, a nose dive into the depths of the human condition and a dissection of the moral psyche.…
Still astonishing that this exists. Begins in already disturbing enough place of interviewing the aged of the genocidal anti-communist death squad responsible for the deaths of over a million Indonesians between 1965–1966, whose demeanors are shockingly casual and almost proud to give access to the filmmakers and openly discuss all the horrific rape, torture and murder they participated in due to the fact that for decades in their country politicians and military propaganda have deemed their actions not war crimes but heroic deeds by everyday "gangster" citizens who stepped up in a time of need and now go out drinking and dancing with the rest of us and shop at the mall with their families.
If Oppenheimer stopped there…
"War Crimes are defined by winners. I'm a winner. So I can make my own definition."
I was born in Bangladesh before immigrating to America when I was 2. My people were victims of genocide by the Pakistani in 1971 where 3 million people were killed. This is a burden I carry and will never forget.
The Act of Killing is a documentary that looks into the lives of gangsters in Indonesia who participated in the mass genocide of "communists" in their country in 1965. These people not only got away with it, but considered heroes by corrupt politicians, the brainwashed public, and themselves. These "people" have agreed to give information about these killings and were even asked to reenact…
::kills hundreds of people. dances and drinks to forget. wears a t-shirt that reads "APATHY" in large Helvetica font. Stops filming re-creation of torture/murder for evening prayers. We can be more sadistic on camera than the Nazi exploitation movies were. Concerned about hair color/clothing. *Retch* I think I understand my victims. *Retch* Born free. Damn, it feels good to be a gangster.::
I wanted to look away. I felt guilty for laughing. This was captured on video and will be forever.
Director's Cut
The Act of Killing is utterly frightening. It explores the darkest side of humanity, not just those who killed but specifically those who are proud to have killed. Worse still, it was an extermination and nobody onscreen denies that or seems ashamed. Some may see The Act of Killing as recklessly platforming these monsters, but they have power and influence within their society regardless, and The Act of Killing at least gets their atrocities on record and raises awareness of their crimes. There are no moments of meaningful self-reflection here, and plenty of vile statements, so there is nothing to ire about these murderers. The film does play with the concept of sin and putting the killers in…
God damn. I've been reading about this movie for nearly a year before finally seeing it, and it both did and did not live up to the stratospheric hype. The Act of Killing isn't as hallucinatory as I'd been lead to believe: some of the staged setpieces are otherworldly and unnerving, but for the most part, the film is the straight-forward mix of fly-on-the-wall and interview we've come to expect from the documentary genre. On the other hand, the actual content of the film: an in-depth portrait of the perpetrators of genocide in a country where the genocidaires still hold power, is singularly compelling and disturbing. Watching a society turn their "official history" into living cultural reality is one flavor of chilling. But nothing is more creepy than observing Anwar Congo try to craft a persona of anguish and moral complexity for Josh Oppenheimer's Western lens.
