Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark-Norway-UK, 2012, 116’, Color

When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his friends were promoted from small-time gangsters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year. In The Act of Killing, Anwar and his friends tell us the story of the killings after forty-fi ve years.

'The Act of Killing' is about killers who have won, and the sort of society they have built. Unlike ageing Nazis or Rwandan génocidaires, Anwar and his friends have not been forced by history to admit they participated in crimes against humanity. Instead, they have written their own triumphant history, becoming role models for millions of young paramilitaries.

Awards:
Berlinale Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary
Audience Award at Sheffield Doc/Fest
Danish Academy Award for Best Documentary (Robert Prize)
Critics Prize, Istanbul Independent Film Festival