A good documentary is informative. A great documentary touches the heart and evokes emotions. The Act of Killing is definitely in need of it’s own category of documentaries. Controversial as it may be, the Act of Killing, well it’s just as bad as it seems, of course that all depends on which perspective you are watching the documentary from. But we can argue for the prior.

The Act of Killing is a documentary about a genocide that happened in Indonesia and then later concealed, a story that may bring people to tears but sure to turn everyone’s stomachs. The actual participants of the genocide that happened in 1965 – 1966 reenact the grueling and honest documentary. Director, Joshua Oppenheimer tracked down the participants and put them in front of the camera and followed to the silver scene, in select locations for obvious reasons.

A brutally honest yet comedic take on killing, murder, rape; reenactments of what they seemed to enjoy. Surreal seems to be the word producers, Werner Herzog and Errol Morris could use to describe what they saw. An informative documentary that introduces a lot of emotional elements and slowly comes to life the more you are captivated into the eerie world of the civil unrest that unfolded in a country. These facts of history are supercharged with fantasy and fiction only to match the lunacy of these participants of the genocide, who truly believe that they in fact are innocent. In the end though, was it a bigger achievement to create an unconventional and a more thought provoking documentary or expose the crimes of the past? I guess watch the movie to make your own judgments.

Text by Ray Rahardja