The Act Of Killing

What is the film about?What happens?

The Act of Killing is a 2012 documentary about a group of individuals involving Anwar Congo and Adi Kuladry, working with the Pemuda Pancasila, who took part in the Indonesian killings of 1965-66. It shows you how over 1 million people from the communist community were killed. The filmer focused on showing the audience different ways in which the communists were killed, the film was done to show every single way the communists were killed. The documentry is focused mainly on Anwar Congo who explained his life of killing and therefor directed his own movie about it all.

Was there a scene that stood out to you?What was it and why?

The one scene that really stood out to me was when Anwar experienced the torture for himself when filming his death in the film. He finally noticed how bad everything he done was and couldn't believe what he put people through. I think this is the strongest scene as the main killer experienced how it would feel to be tortured. I also found the scene were he was gagging really interesting as you can tell from here that he regrets all the decisions made and is disgusted in what he has done to the communists. It makes you think that he is so sad and disappointed in his past actions.

Did the filmmaker have a presence?How and in what capacity?

The filmmaker didn't actually have a visual presence in the film but he did ask a question to Anwar. In a few of the scenes Anwar would refer to the filmmaker as Josh and make sure he is in the correct place for the best possible clips. 

What two honoured documentary filmmakers had executive producer credits on the film?

In the Art of Killing, two of the world's most honoured documentary filmmakers were used, being Wener Herzog and Errol Morris. For this film, both these filmmakers are credited as executive producers.

What was the follow up/'sequel' to the film? Find the title and describe what it was about.

A documentary named 'The Look of Silence' was the follow up to 'The Act of Killing'. This film was also directed by Joshua Oppenheimer. The Look of Silence is a documentary about a family that survives the genocide in Indonesia. The family end up confronting the men who killed one of their brothers. 

       

Anwar Congo