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| Review by Mark Wensel |
Produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
Starring Haji Anif, Syamsul Arifin, Sakhyan Asmara,
Anwars Congo, Jusuf Kalla, Herman Koto,
Haji Marzuki, Safit Pardede, Ibrahim Sinik,
Soaduon Siregar, Yapto Soerjosoemarno, Adi Zulkadry
Drafthouse Films / Not Rated
Last night, I watched one of the most harrowing, disturbing and important documentaries that I've ever seen.
It's not the most structured documentary (it seems to jump around in time in ways that are a little bit confusing) or informative when it comes to the history of the events (it seems to have been made for people who grew up in the region and already know the history better than I do), but it packs an emotional wallop and delves into the subject deeper than most of us probably want to go.
The movie was called The Act Of Killing and the subject was basically genocide. It's about the gangsters who were hired by the Indonesian government in the mid-60s to wipe out Communists.
And, by "wipe out," I mean that they killed them in many horrible ways, lying about their reasons.
And now they're treated like heroes.
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