The Act Of Killing is a chilling and inventive documentary said to have left many critics dumbfounded. It won best documentary at the 2014 Bafta awards and was nominated for best documentary at the 86th Academy Awards.
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, the bloody documentary re-stages a wave of mass killings in 1960s Indonesia. But, what has caused a mental debate in many heads is the fact that it shows how the perpetrators can continue to live as national heroes.
Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary won a Bafta award and was nominated for an Oscar this year.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) will be screening The Act Of Killing on March 26, starting at 7pm.
Anwar Congo and his friends are mass murders who have been dancing their way through musical numbers, twisting arms in film noir gangster scenes, and galloping across prairies as yodelling cowboys. Their foray into filmmaking is being celebrated in the media and debated on television.
When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar Congo and his friends were promoted from small-time gangsters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders.
Today, Anwar is revered as a founding father of a right-wing paramilitary organisation that grew out of the death squads. The organisation is so powerful that its leaders include government ministers, and they are happy to boast about everything from corruption and election rigging to acts of genocide.
The Act Of Killing is about killers who have won, and the sort of society they have built. Unlike ageing Nazis or Rwandan genocidaires, Anwar and his friends have not been forced by history to admit they participated in crimes against humanity.
In The Act Of Killing, Anwar and his friends agree to tell us the story of the killings. But their idea of being in a movie is not to provide testimony for a documentary: they want to star in the kind of films they most love from their days scalping tickets at the cinemas.
This documentary exposes how a regime that was founded on crimes against humanity, yet has never been held accountable, would project itself into history.
The fee is 350 baht (free for members), plus 350 baht for buffet dinner. The FCCT is located at Maneeya Centre, Phloenchit Road.
For reservations, email info@fccthai.com or call 02-652-0580/1.
