THE ASSASSINS. Shocking, thought-provoking and every bit the white-knuckled ride, Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing” views the dissected history of Indonesia through a microscope and reveals the injustices suffered by a struggling nation.
The chilling documentary exposes the lives of the executors of more than a million citizens in Indonesia’s 1965 genocide and goes inside the minds of killers with in-depth interviews. Challenging former members of the death squad to re-enact the cold-blooded assassinations on-screen, the real-life mass murderers took audiences on a detailed, step-by-step process of killing with incomprehensible normalcy. Mixed with nightmarish musical numbers, the documentary retains a surreal quality as bizarre and inconceivable as the actual events. Oppenheimer took the road less traveled and went down the rockier route to extract humanity from the executors’ seemingly impenetrable layers of cruelty. Serving as more than a social commentary, the film’s essence highlights the effects of national unrest suffered on individual levels.
Watch the trailer here: