Fri July 19 • 6:45pm | Vancity Theatre (map)

Trailer • Official Site
115 min • In Indonesian, English with English subtitles

SYNOPSIS: Probably the most radical and powerful film you will experience this year, The Act of Killing is a searing expose of political amnesia and impunity in Indonesia, where the gangsters and thugs behind the murders of millions are celebrated as champions of free enterprise. It is also a surreal, provocative exploration of the psyches of these men – killers who proudly re-enact their atrocities for the camera, willing collaborators in their own cinematic bonfire of the vanities.

When the Indonesian government was overthrown in 1965, small-time gangster Anwar Congo and his friends went from selling movie tickets on the black market to leading anti-Communist death squads.Half a century later, when Joshua Oppenheimer and his (incognito) partners approached the dapper septuagenarian about participating in a film, he leapt at it. But for Anwar and his friends, being in a movie is not to provide reflective testimony, but a chance to dance their way through musical numbers, twist arms in film noir gangster scenes, and gallop across the prairies as yodeling cowboys. A cinematic fever dream, The Act of Killing presents a gripping conflict between moral imagination and moral catastrophe.

Filmmakers
Joshua Oppenheimer – Director
Signe Byrge Sorensen – Producer
Christine Cynn – Co-Director