The Act of Killing

"We were allowed to do it.  And the proof is, we murdered people and were never punished."

The Act of Killing is a surreal movie.  The filmmakers approached Anwar Congo to tell his story and recreate the events of 1960s Indonesia in which paramilitary groups captured and killed communists.  Anwar decides to film a movie to reenact the atrocities committed by his death squads.  They go into great detail describing how they did, often in prideful reflection like a veteran telling war stories.  This is in stark contrast to the normalcy of their lives now.

What's chilling is their interactions with families who have been affected by the killings.  The civility and frankness that they give to each other now as they talk about the ways in which their family members were murdered just boggles my mind.  As the reenact some scenes, the people playing the victims seem to be "acting" a little too realistically as you see the pain and torment on their faces.

For some of the former death squad killers, the guilt has been pushed deep down inside them and they are even proud of what they did.  For others, you can see the conflict in their eyes as they ponder the morality of their past actions.  The film is haunting because they are digging up old ghosts from the past.

10/10 - one of the most original, moving documentaries I had ever seen.