The Act of Killing is chilling yet absurd

    1 of 2 2 of 2

      A documentary by Joshua Oppenheimer. In Indonesian and English with English subtitles. Unrated. Opens Friday, July 19 (theatrical cut), and Saturday, July 20 (director’s cut), at the Vancity Theatre

      How do you describe the experience of watching a mass executioner explain why dark-checkered pants are the best wardrobe choice for killing people? Or dragging his grandson out of bed to watch Grandpa reenact his favourite wire-strangulation technique?

      Surreal, unbelievable, horrific: those words don’t even begin to sum up Joshua Oppenheimer’s chilling yet absurd profile of the gangsters who openly brag about having committed genocide in Indonesia. Now aging dandies, they were hired in the mid-’60s, along with paramilitaries, to exterminate an estimated half-million to a million or more “communists”, intellectuals, and ethnic Chinese. Outrageously, the West backed the bad guys. The gangsters still run rampant, acting like heroes to a scary new wave of young paramilitaries.

      Oppenheimer brilliantly structures Act of Killing as a bizarre making-of film, as he invites the motley crew of one-time killers to reenact their dirtiest deeds in whatever movie style they like. His cocky subjects opt for gaudy chorus lines or film-noir gangsters and cowboys in pink stetsons. And let’s not even go into the outsized ghost in Vegas drag who communes with a severed head.

      The real revelations, however, come during behind-the-scenes takes, with Oppenheimer subtly prodding the subjects toward truth. The men complain there’s too much talk of human rights these days. We never hear from the victims here, but Oppenheimer is going for something more complex than a straight-up documentary. Listen as a helper on set admits that his own Chinese stepfather was murdered and that as a boy he not only had to bury the man’s beaten carcass but was then exiled to the jungle as a “communist”—not that he’s criticizing his employers, he assures with a smile tightened with fear.

      The reenactments and role-playing build to a stomach-churning third act, where the first hints of conscience start to crack through. Act of Killing is not about to change the attitudes of a bunch of hard-ass thugs, but it’s a monumentally damning look at a country whose glossy new malls take on a sinister sheen in this genre-redefining effort.

      Watch the trailer for The Act of Killing.

      Comments