The Act of Killing (2012)

The Act of Killing (NR)

"When In Jakarta"

Chilling documentary that doubles as surreal window into the cold blooded heart of humanity. Peeking into the ramifications of the wholesale murder of a half million minorities and political in 1960-65 Indonesia, an act that is still celebrated to this day.  Their leaders, the executors and their children dance in the streets as their military dictatorship upholds them as heroes and legends.  When a director and film crew begin to peel back the layers and ask the propagators of violence to document their heroic deeds, one among them begins to emerge as a man possessed of tremendous guilt.

The reenactments are beautiful, outsider-art affairs, shot with delicate beauty and supreme craftsmanship.  This is in stark contrast to the words, their descriptions of the massacres are in the spirit of the winners make the rules.  However talking on camera is Anwar, one of those revered heroes, is obviously filled with deep seated regret and horror at his supposed accomplishments.  He breaks down as he simulates how the murders took place, becomes distraught as he puts himself in the literal shoes of his victims.  This is a man of such extreme guilt in the face of nationwide praise that his struggle towards confession is remarkable.  Partnered with the phantasmic cross-dressing musical-dance troupe recreations, this trek down the dark alleys of human psyche is a shadowed one way street.

If the Nazis had triumphed in World War II, and if a film crew had asked an elderly Eichmann to discuss the "wonderous" slaying of 6 millions Jews and recreate the victories using musical theater, and who then began to have pangs of conscience about the blood on his hands on camera, this is that documentary, giving us a one-in-a-kind opportunity into the mind of a ennobled mass-killer.

7.5 Glorious Rallies out of 10 (GOOD)