The Act of Killing
The Act of Killing (Indonesian: Jagal, lit. 'Butcher') is a 2012 documentary film directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, with Christine Cynn and an anonymous Indonesian co-directing. The film follows individuals who participated in the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66, wherein alleged communists and people opposed to the New Order regime were tortured and killed, with the killers, many becoming gangsters, still in power throughout the country. The film was mostly filmed in Medan, North Sumatra, following the executioner Anwar Congo and his acquaintances as they, upon Oppenheimer's request, re-enact their killings and talk about their actions openly, also following Congo's psychological journey facing the topic.
| Directed by | |||
| Produced by | |||
| Written by |
 written by
|
||
| Screenplay by |
screenplay by
|
||
| Story by |
story by
|
||
| Based on |
based on
|
||
| Starring |
starring
|
||
| Narrated by |
narrated by
|
||
| Music by | Elin Øyen Vister, Karsten Fundal
|
||
| Cinematography |
|
||
| Edited by |
|
||
| Animation by |
animation by
|
||
| Layouts by |
layouts by
|
||
| Backgrounds by |
backgrounds by
|
||
| Color process |
color process
|
||
| Production company |
|
||
| Distributed by |
|
||
| Release date |
|
||
| Running time | |||
| Country |
|
||
| Language | Indonesian
|
||
| Budget | $1 million
|
||
| Box office | $722,714
|
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
| Type |
type
|
||
| Class |
class
|
||
| Theme |
theme
|
||
| Tone |
tone
|
||
| Mood |
mood
|
- Some of the killers featured here are so-called 'movie gangsters' who said their murders had been inspired by their love of John Wayne, Marlon Brando, or Mafia and American B-movies.
- Played for 52 weeks at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts from June 28th, 2013.
- One of the films chosen for the 42nd annual New Directors/New Films showcase in March 2013, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, co-sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
- The project started focusing on the family of the victims, but a lot were arrested as Joshua Oppenheimer was doing the interviews with them. In that process he started meeting torturers, so he decided to refocus the story on them.
- An early scene shows Pancasila Youth members collecting extortion money from several shop owners. It is not a re-enactment. During a masterclass at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London on June 28th, 2014, director 'Joshua Oppenheimer (II)' claimed that he paid back the extortion victims in full with his own money, on the same day of the shoot. According to him, he would stay behind, under the false pretense of getting the shop owners to sign release forms, while his crew accompanied the Pancasila gangsters as they visited other shops.
More...
This page is the FamousFix profile for The Act of Killing. Content on this page is contributed by editors who belong to our editorial community. We welcome your contributions... so please create an account if you would like to collaborate with other editor's in helping to shape this website.
On the The Act of Killing page you will be able to add and update factual information, post media and connect this topic to other topics on the website. This website does skew towards famous actors, musicians, models and sports stars, however we would like to expand that to include many other interesting topics.