Cinema World Tour, Film #41
Country: Indonesia
Watched in: Guwahati, Assam, North-East India
Rating: 10/10
Halloween Eve. While most of you might be watching the classic rather mild horror films, I spent the evening watching one of the scariest films of all time: Joshua Oppenheimer's masterpiece The Act of Killing. There is not much I could say about this film. It left me speechless, shocked, moved and disgusted at the same time. But this isn't a film made with hate – this film works rather as a mirror which lets the killers reflect on their own actions. Oppenheimer is still in frequent touch with Anwar Congo, they are not friends, but they definitely respect each other. Oppenheimer doesn't choose an approach of hate and revenge for the victims, but of making the murderers understand their own guilt. The last 30 minutes of The Act of Killing, focussing on Anwar realising what he's done to over thousand people - just by watching the scenes he made himself – are one of the most enthralling and captivating things I've ever seen on screen.
What Oppenheimer achieved here is absolutely breathtaking. If all this wouldn't be true, I wouldn't believe one word of it. Oppenheimer called this film „his gift to Indonesia“, and his gift is simply revolutionary. I'm not just saying it because it sounds good. This film actually changed a lot and brought at least a bit of justice to hundreds of victim's families. You should definitely read this article if you want to know more about the film and how much it actually changed. This is without any doubt the most interesting and most important documentary of all time. Probably also the best one.
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