A film by Joshua Oppenheimer
“There won’t be another documentary like THE ACT OF KILLING for 50 years”
—Werner Herzog
Website: The Act of Killing
Twitter: @theactofkilling / @joshuaoppenheim
SYNOPSIS:
Anwar Congo and his friends 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, even though Anwar Congo and his friends are mass murderers.
Medan, Indonesia. When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his friends were promoted from small-time gangsters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year.
As the executioner for the most notorious death squad in his city, Anwar himself killed hundreds of people with his own hands. Today, Anwar is revered as a founding father of a right-wing paramilitary organization that grew out of the death squads. The organization 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 aging Nazis or Rwandan génocidaires, Anwar and his friends have not been forced by history to admit they participated in crimes against humanity. Instead, they have written their own triumphant history, becoming role models for millions of young paramilitaries. The Act of Killing is a journey into the memories and imaginations of the perpetrators, offering insight into the minds of mass killers. And The Act of Killing is a nightmarish vision of a frighteningly banal culture of impunity in which killers can joke about crimes against humanity on television chat shows, and celebrate moral disaster with the ease and grace of a soft shoe dance number.
Description in Bahasa Indonesia
Anwar Congo dan kawan-kawannya menari-nari sepanjang adegan musikal, menyiksa tahanan dalam adegan gangster bergaya film noir, lalu berkuda melintas padang rumput melantunkan yodel koboi. Upaya Anwar membuat film mendapatkan sambutan meriah dalam acara bincang-bincang di televisi, sekalipun Anwar Congo dan kawan-kawannya adalah pembunuh massal.
Medan, Sumatera Utara. Ketika pemerintah Indonesia digulingkan oleh militer pada 1965, Anwar dan kawan-kawan ‘naik pangkat’ dari preman kelas teri pencatut karcis bioskop menjadi pemimpin pasukan pembunuh. Mereka membantu tentara membunuh lebih dari satu juta orang yang dituduh komunis, etnis Tionghoa, seniman, dan intelektual.
Dalam film Jagal, Anwar dan kawan-kawan berusaha menyampaikan imajinasi mereka tentang pembantaian yang mereka lakukan ke dalam sebuah film fiksi. Sebuah upaya justifikasi heroisme yang perlahan berubah menjadi mimpi buruk.
Jagal adalan sebuah cerita tentang para pembunuh yang menang, serta tentang masyarakat yang mereka bentuk.
Film Jagal bukan kisah tentang Indonesia belaka. Ini adalah kisah tentang semua orang di dunia.
Sutradara : Joshua Oppenheimer
Ko Sutradara : Anonim & Christine Cynn
Produser : Signe Byrge Sørensen
Produser Eksekutif : Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, André Singer, Torstein Grude, Bjarte Mørner Tveit, dan Joram ten Brink.
Ko Produser : Torstein Grude dan Bjarte Mørner Tveit, Piraya Film, NO; Joshua Oppenheimer dan Christine Cynn, Novaya Zemlya, UK; bekerja sama dengan André Singer, Spring Films Ltd, UK
Durasi : 159 Menit
Tahun produksi : 2012
