Review on The Act of Killing [movie]

I saw this movie last two weeks due to a movie director's insistence that I should watch it. "You should watch it, I know you are going to love it". Right.

The Act of Killing is more of a documentary, relating the story of Anwar Congo, who was part of a death squad in Indonesian killings of 1965–1966 . It is estimated that he had killed up to 1,000. Yes, he killed people. And in the movie, he explained in detail how he carried out the killings. In front of his friends, family and random people on the street. Strangely enough, no one was really shocked and many took on roles in the film that Anwar Congo wanted to make. (He and the producer, Joshua Oppenheimer, made a deal to make a movie of his story and this is the result)

Anwar Congo demonstrating a killing technique

Although it has many chilling and surreal moments, the movie is as honest as it can be. Besides the killing, it also shows a local politician who is running for the election and he described the reason he is running is because he can make much money if he got elected. Some of them also went to ask for bribes from Chinese businessman in exchange for "protection". I don't know if the camera was hidden or not but clearly, it was not acting.

A scene from imagined by Anwar Congo himself, dreaming of the heaven that he will go, for freeing the people that he had killed from further wrong doings in this world

A disturbing thought is how all the murders that took place were loosely sanctioned by the authorities. Anwar Congo is as close to a national hero, appearing in television shows and being paraded in national festivities. Even the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports was part of the movie, appearing in a re-enactment of the attack on Kampong Kolam, an allegedl a communist hideout, where all inhabitants were killed and houses were burned down.

Re-enactment of the attack at Kampong Kolam

As Anwar Congo was filming this movie, he realised what his captives felt during the his executions. He can't sleep because of nightmares, his cough was getting worse and he puked when filming certain scenes.

Asking Protection Money

This movie is sick yet it shows many raw human elements in its state. Saddam thought he was a saviour for Iraq and so did Hitler for Germans. Mass murderers have a totally different idea of what they do. Thus, approaching them with the same psychological approach like other criminals would not do the trick. They should be stopped the way that they have been stopping others.