The Act of Killing

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The Act of Killing
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Produced by
Starring
  • Anwar Congo
  • Herman Koto
  • Syamsul Arifin
  • Ibrahim Sinik
  • Japto Soerjosoemarno
  • Safit Pardede
  • Jusuf Kalla
  • Adi Zulkadry
  • Soaduon Siregar
  • Marzuki
  • Anif Shah
  • Rahmat Shah
  • Sakhyan Asmara
Cinematography
  • Anonymous
  • Carlos Arango de Montis
  • Lars Skree
Edited by
  • Niels Pagh Andersen
  • Janus Billeskov Jansen
  • Mariko Montpetit
  • Charlotte Munch Bengtsen
  • Ariadna Fatjó-Vilas Mestre
Music by
  • Elin Øyen Vister
  • Karsten Fundal
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 31 August 2012 (2012-08-31) (Telluride)
  • 1 November 2012 (2012-11-01) (Indonesia)
Running time
122 minutes[1]
167 minutes (director's cut)
Countries
  • Denmark
  • Indonesia
  • Norway
  • United Kingdom
LanguageIndonesian
Budget$1 million[2]
Box office$722,714[3]

The Act of Killing (

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.

A

humanist
quality. Filming occurred up to 2011 with an Indonesian team largely credited anonymous. Oppenheimer described the process as taking a psychological toll on their mental health. The film was edited by a team of four.

The Act of Killing premiered on 31 August 2012 at the

British Academy Film Award
.

The film has become subject to scholarly analysis regarding documentary filmmaking, and the mass killings itself. It has also helped catalyse a wide conversation regarding the events in Indonesia, with the reality of what happened more known, especially with the

extorting money from Chinese Indonesians. The Indonesian government has not given positive responses, claiming that it is a misleading portrayal of the country's history.[4] A spiritual successor, The Look of Silence
, was released in 2014; it depicts the family of a victim as they encounter the killers and understand further on what happened.

Summary

The following summary is derived from the director's cut.

Following the 1965

paramilitary groups and gangsters, the biggest being Pancasila Youth
, has since gained power in Indonesia.

The Act of Killing is directed by

extorted
by the gangsters.

Adi Zulkadry, a friend and past collaborator of Congo, discusses Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI (1984), a film propagating that the 30 September Movement was perpetrated by the communists. While Congo praised the film for validating his acts, Zulkadry is skeptical of its plot and deems the genocide cruel. In a discussion with Oppenheimer, he denies it being a war crime, as the same holds true for the Iraq War and the Native American genocide in the United States. Congo then detailed his nightmares following the genocide, where he would envision the spirits of his victims. Zulkadry, who felt no remorse, downplays it as nerve issues. Ibrahim Sinik and Soduaon Siregar, journalists of Medan Pos who covered the genocide, showed support but denied direct participation.

The

land clearing for developers. The group earns income in the modern era by criminal activities like gambling and drug smuggling. The film also depicts their behavior of sexually objectifying women, at one point boasting about raping teenage girls and Gerwani
members back then.

During the re-enactments, titled Arsan dan Aminah, some of the gangsters including Zulkadry express caution so as to not potentially destroy their reputation as heroes. While it initially centers on the killings, Congo then discusses his nightmares more. After filming the Pancasila Youth members chant their spirit in killing communists, they continue to a scene where the alleged communist families are tortured, with their houses arsoned. Seeing the crying children, Congo expresses pity, which turns to terror as he portrays a victim in another scene, sending him on a panic attack as he senses what his victims felt. Feeling remorse, he returns to a place where he frequently killed people, retching at his own reminiscing.

Production

Filming

The film was mostly filmed in Medan (pictured 2009)

The Act of Killing came to be when Oppenheimer and co-director Christine Cynn went to a Belgian-owned palm plantation nearby Medan, where the female workers were asked to spray the plant killer herbicide to their body; the film that came out of it, The Globalisation Tapes (2003), documents their worries on making a union against the system because their grandparents were alleged pro-communists killed during the genocide. As focus on the genocide was apparent, people in the military often confiscated their equipment and detained the duo. Before they could leave Indonesia, the workers suggested that they film the genocide's perpetrators. Despite their caution, the people they met were overweening and proudful on their acts. Starting in late 2004 with the help of death squad leader Amir Hasan, they were able to contact many of his kind, moving up the ranks of those involved, including retired military officers in capital city Jakarta and two retired officers of the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States, and met Congo in Medan in 2005 as his 41st interviewee.[5][6][7] The film's Indonesian co-director began working in 2004 with a one-month goal, but eventually sticked throughout the entire process.[7]

The film was shot mostly between 2005 and 2011. In several interviews, he described his feeling listening to the perpetrators as if "I'd wandered into Germany 40 years after the Holocaust only to find the Nazis still in power". It took filming around five or ten subjects that Oppenheimer could openly discuss the genocide, and when he ideated that he would let them re-enact their acts while filming their thoughts on it "to create perhaps a new form of documentary, a kind of documentary of the imagination". The subjects understood that the re-enactments will not be a separate film, and have signed forms indicating such.[8][6] Congo was a particular point of interest to Oppenheimer because he "could see his pain", believing that Congo's openness to his acts were in response to self-soothing his trauma, trying to deny any wrongdoing.[9] Because different death squads within Pancasila Youth dislike each other, the film only depicts Congo's squad (Pasukan Kodok) to avoid conflicts. Henceforth, he met Koto, Zulkadry, and Sinik; as a filmmaker and Anwar's killing advisor, Sinik gave input on the re-enactments.[6][7]

Oppenheimer handled half of the cinematography,

Long takes were preferred to depict entire events, and the crew would not speak much as it records. The entire behind-the-scenes process of the re-enactments were thus filmed to further accommodate the film's investigative comprehesiveness. Dailies of the re-enactments were shown to the subjects as soon as possible, hence the reaction scenes in the film. The gangster re-enactment's set was based upon the actual office where the murders occurred, and was entirely improvised.[7] The goldfish sculpture seen prominently throughout the film was a former restaurant that closed in 1997;[10] it was filmed last and represents Congo's ambiguous fever dream.[7]

Filmed in 2009,

state television network also dominated by gangsters.[8] The reason Koto was given feminine costume was because his theater "group was like the Globe Theatre [...], all the roles were played by men, and Herman always played the women's roles." The scene where Congo's neighbor admitted having his stepfather killed was not on Oppenheimer and his Indonesian co-director's attention as they were changing tapes; Oppenheimer expressed regret for missing out on it and allowing his portrayal as a tortured victim, where he had a breakdown. He died two years after filming.[11]

Amid filming, Oppenheimer traveled to Jakarta to show the videos filmed thus far to genocide survivors and human rights advocates, who deemed his findings important and crucial to continue on.[6] They also frequently delivered dailies and transcripts of it to National Human Rights Commissioner Stanley Prasetyo, who helped with interview ideas.[12] Zulkadry's came midway through filming, with the Indonesian production manager having met him previously in Jakarta. Oppenheimer's vision for the film changed with his arrival, who openly condemned the killings but also expressed caution on the re-enactment's potential in reshaping Indonesian history. During one of the scenes, Zulkadry asked for the film to be discontinued, alleging that Oppenheimer is a communist. With the Indonesian crew in fear, Oppenheimer refuted Adi's claims.[13] He felt traumatized by the overall filming and at one point collapsed in exhaustion; he would often return to London healing from nightmares and insomnia. It stemmed from a re-enactment where Congo mutilates a teddy bear symbolizing a girl, then telling Koto, "you tried to bribe me with your daughter. See? You're the barbaric one, not me."[a][14]

The Indonesian crew also faced similar emotions which they faced by bonding with each other, though some stepped down midway through filming.[15] As the filming progresses, Oppenheimer could be more open on his perspectives with Zulkadry, who he deems hypocritical, and Congo.[11] He and Congo had bonded during filming; during the mutilation re-enactment, Congo noticed him crying and asking if they must stop.[14] Thus, when Congo retched in the penultimate scene, Oppenheimer chose not to reassure him so as to not be "dishonest"; instead he told him the film he envisioned to release, to which Congo responded (translated by Oppenheimer), "Okay, if that's what it is, I understand, I'm not angry, I want to see it." Oppenheimer gave him a DVD "when it's safe to do so".[11] Richard Whittaker of The Austin Chronicle concluded that in creating the film, he "paid a psychic toll".[5]

Post-filming

extrajudicial punishments
.

Filmmakers

executive producers for The Act of Killing. At an airport in London, another executive producer André Singer directed Oppenheimer to Herzog, whom he has also worked with, to preview eight minutes of the film; he immediately displayed interest. Several months later, Herzog via telephone was angered by Oppenheimer trying to shorten the film, intendedly to make it accessible for a wide audience and film festivals. He then agreed on the trimming, but assisted editing so as to not remove crucial elements (he marked scenes by three levels of importance), and analyzed three or four rough cuts with Oppenheimer.[14] Herzog constantly reassured the worrisome Oppenheimer on the quality of the film.[8] Morris, meanwhile, had known Oppenheimer for 20 years, and saw the early clips circa 2010.[16]

The editing team was led by Niels Pagh Andersen, accompanied by Charlotte Munch Bengtsen, Ariadna Fatjó-Vilas Mestre, Janus Billeskov Jansen, and Mariko Montpetit,

Copenhagen, Denmark.[7][18][19] Color grading was done by Tom Chr. Lilletvedt, who also did the visual effects with Christopher Berge Hove.[17] The budget totalled at €1,373,380.[12]

Many of the Indonesians who worked on the film are not credited by name, instead appearing as "Anonymous", for fear of legal and

letters of recommendation.[15] The Indonesian co-director noted that his fellow filmmaker friend was once questioned by a state official, who admitted making efforts to try uncover his identity. His ties with The Act of Killing is only known to friends, family, as well as several journalists and filmmakers.[20] Oppenheimer hoped that the climate surrounding the genocide gets better so that the film can be re-released with the Indonesian crew properly credited.[10]

Release

Outside Indonesia

Joshua Oppenheimer at the French premiere for The Act of Killing

The Act of Killing premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in the United States on 31 August 2012,[19] which was quickly followed by a screening in September at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada.[21] The film's initial festival circuit and subsequent American theatrical release by Drafthouse Films used a 120-minute cut by editor Jansen.[19][22] Dogwoof acquired rights for the United Kingdom.[23] In late 2013, television networks began airing the film in a shorter 95-minute duration. Oppenheimer stated that despite lamenting how the shorter cuts meant less character depth, he wanted the film's contents to be seen by Western audiences: "What cinemas are going to take a 2-hour-and-40-minute experimental documentary about genocide in Indonesia that no one's ever heard about?" Following the positive reception, it was decided that the 160-minute director's cut be released.[24]

In the week ending 14 April 2013 in France, the film earned $10,320. It screened up to 5 June, with an additional 13,396 audiences. Meanwhile, in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, it earned $440, $61,258 ($11,413 in its opening weekend), and $163,777, respectively. For the US, its opening weekend on 21 July 2013 earned $27,450 in one theatre, earning 57th place. The most significant increase was in the week ending 15 September, when it earned an additional $22,468 in 19 theatres, a 359.1% increase from the previous weekend. It continued to see moderate changes up to 2 March 2014, though had a 272% increase in the week ending 9 February, when it earned $3,612 from 20-theatre screenings. Thus within the US, it earned $484,221. Cumulating all these figures, the film earned $725,324. Meanwhile, a 2016 re-release in Thailand from 11 to 21 February earned $3,610.[25][26]

Drafthouse then released the theatrical and director's cuts on a Region 1/A-locked DVD and

deleted scenes. The scenes respectively depict Congo preparing to act as a victim, him and Zulkadry criticising corruption, a deputy minister praising Pancasila Youth, and Sinik claiming to be a humanist but saying that Oppenheimer might have been killed during the mass killings. The packaging comes with an essay by Morris titled "The Murders of Gonzango", connecting the killings to the Vietnam War, which the US also incited.[27] Dogwoof also released the DVD and Blu-ray with the same special features, but is Region 2/B-locked for the UK and Ireland.[28]

Indonesia

Because of the heated political climate in Indonesia, it is highly risky to submit The Act of Killing, titled Jagal in Indonesian, to the Film Censorship Board, since the probability of it being banned would mean Indonesians can face charges for watching the film, and allowing paramilitary groups to heckle screenings. The film premiered in the country, screened by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) throughout late 2012 for filmmakers, authors, advocates, educators, and organizations for the genocide survivors. The positive reception prompted the assembly of a campaign team by some of them in collaboration with the film's production company Final Cut for Real on behalf of Partisipasi Indonesia.[12] Any members of the general public were permitted to screen the film limitlessly with a copy provided by the team.[29]

On 10 December, coinciding Human Rights Day, screenings were held in at least 50 venues across 30 cities, with an estimated 30 to 600 audiences per theatre. The venues ranged from a large multiplex theatre in Jakarta and universities, to the victims' mass grave and an isolated jungle. The only screening that stopped midway was in Central Java upon police demand; another close call was committed by paramilitary groups. When a news editor published an article titled "World Condemns Pancasila Youth", 500 members of the gang stormed the office and beat up the general manager. However three months later, some of the Pancasila Youth attended a screening and discussed about it without wreaking havoc.[12]

Between May and August 2013, 1,096 DVD copies were distributed to 118 cities in 29 provinces. On 17 August 2013 (Independence Day), 45 screenings were publicly held. On 30 September 2013, the day of commemorating the genocide, the film was given rights to be released online for free only for Indonesian viewers. Apart from word of mouth among public figures, Twitter was also credited to its popularity: nearing Independence Day, the amount of tweets mentioning The Act of Killing spiked up to 12,000 tweets, and mentions of "Indonesian killing" and "Indonesian death squad" also saw slight increase. The total budget for the Indonesian campaign totalled up to €53,841.[12] The film was then made available on YouTube on 17 December.[30]

Reception

Critical response

The Act of Killing received widespread acclaim from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 95% approval rating with an average rating of 8.8/10 based on 163 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Raw, terrifying, and painfully difficult to watch, The Act of Killing offers a haunting testament to the edifying, confrontational power of documentary cinema."[31] On Metacritic, the film holds an average score of 92 out of 100, based on 34 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[32]

Nick Schager of The Village Voice called it a "masterpiece".[33] Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges called the film "an important exploration of the complex psychology of mass murderers" and wrote that "it is not the demonized, easily digestible caricature of a mass murderer that most disturbs us. It is the human being."[34] Award-winning filmmaker Ruhi Hamid said: "It is the most extraordinary film I have ever seen. It actually turns around what we think of as documentaries. ...an extraordinary record of a horrendous part of Indonesian history."[35]

In some quarters, Oppenheimer has been accused of treating his subjects in bad faith.[36] As far as their goal at the beginning was to glorify mass murder, Oppenheimer responds that could never have been his goal, therefore that side of them may have been betrayed.[37][38][39][40] In an interview with The Village Voice, Oppenheimer said: "When I was entrusted by this community of survivors to film these justifications, to film these boastings, I was trying to expose and interrogate the nature of impunity. Boasting about killing was the right material to do that with because it is a symptom of impunity."[41]

Australian National University Professor of Asian History and Politics Robert Cribb stated that the film lacks historical context.[42] In reply, Oppenheimer said that "the film is essentially not about what happened in 1965, but rather about a regime in which genocide has, paradoxically, been effaced [yet] celebrated – in order to keep the survivors terrified, the public brainwashed, and the perpetrators able to live with themselves... It never pretends to be an exhaustive account of the events of 1965. It seeks to understand the impact of the killing and terror today, on individuals and institutions."[43]

Bradley Simpson, historian at the University of Connecticut and director of the Indonesia/East Timor Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, states the "brilliant Oscar-nominated film" has prompted vigorous debate among Indonesians about the crimes and the need to hold responsible parties accountable, and suggests that it could have a similar effect in the United States, whose own role in the killings "has never officially been acknowledged, much less accounted for, though some of the relevant documents have been made available to the public."[44]

An Indonesian academic,

banality of evil.[45]

The primary subjects in the film, Anwar Congo and Herman Koto, have seen the film and neither feels deceived, according to Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer says that upon watching the film Anwar Congo "started to cry...Tearfully, he told me: 'This is the film I expected. It's an honest film, a true film.' He said he was profoundly moved and will always remain loyal to it." Oppenheimer went on to say that in the call with Congo he also became down on himself saying "There is nothing left for me to do in life but to die". Oppenheimer seeing Congo so moved and almost ashamed for what he had done, said this to him. "You're only 70 years old, Anwar. You might live another 25 years. Whatever good you do in those years is not undermined by the awful things in your past." He felt it may have been cliche, but he felt it was honest and all he could manage to say to Congo.[46] A subsequent interview on Al Jazeera's program 101 East revealed that Anwar had misgivings about the film and the negative reaction to it in Indonesia, which was causing problems for him. He confided these concerns directly to Oppenheimer in an apparent Skype conversation displayed within the program.[47]

In 2015, the film was named as one of the top 50 films of the decade so far by The Guardian.[48]

Top ten lists

The Act of Killing has been named as one of the best films of 2013 by various critics:[49]

The Act of Killing was ranked 19th among all documentaries ever made in a 2015 poll by the British Film Institute,[55] as well as the 14th greatest film since 2000 in a 2016 critics' poll by BBC.[56] It was ranked 16th in The Guardian's Best Films of the 21st Century list.[57]

Awards and nominations

Main article:
US Congress members, Oppenheimer demanded that the US acknowledge its role in the killings.[68]

Notes

  1. ^ Original: "Ini adalah satu tingkah yang biasanya buat orang yang ingin menyuap dengan anaknya. [...] Yang sebenarnya kamu lebih biadab."

See also

References

  1. Dogwoof Pictures. British Board of Film Classification
    . Retrieved 18 August 2013.
  2. Internet Movie Database
    . Retrieved 18 August 2013.
  3. ^ "Act of Killing (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  4. ^ Josua Gantan (23 January 2014). "Indonesia Reacts to ‘Act of Killing’ Academy Nomination", The Jakarta Globe. Retrieved 27 May 2014
  5. ^ a b Whittaker, Richard (9 August 2013). "Making a 'Killing': Joshua Oppenheimer on the half-decade he spent filming for The Act of Killing". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  6. ^ a b c d POV (14 January 2014). "Filmmaker Interview | The Act of Killing | POV | PBS". POV | American Documentary Inc. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g "The Act of Killing press notes" (PDF). Cinephil. September 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  8. ^ a b c Fortune, Drew (30 July 2013). "Joshua Oppenheimer and Werner Herzog on The Act of Killing". The A.V. Club. The Onion, Inc. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  9. ^ Kinosian, Janet (18 February 2014). "Joshua Oppenheimer on 'The Act of Killing,' reconciliation". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  10. ^ a b c Oppenheimer, Joshua; Herzog, Werner (7 January 2014). The Act of Killing (Blu-ray audio commentary). Drafthouse Films.
  11. ^ a b c d "Interview: Joshua Oppenheimer". Film Comment. 15 July 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  12. ^
    BRITDOC Foundation
    . Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  13. ^ Joshua Oppenheimer on "The Act of Killing": The VICE Podcast 034, retrieved 24 October 2023
  14. ^ a b c Kiang, Jessica (26 February 2015). "Interview: Joshua Oppenheimer Talks 'The Act of Killing,' How Werner Herzog Works & The Scene That Gave Him Nightmares". IndieWire. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  15. ^ a b O'Brien, Rob (16 January 2014). "The quiet agony of filming 'The Act of Killing'". GlobalPost – via PRI.
  16. ^ Raup, Jordan (23 February 2014). "Highlights From Werner Herzog, Errol Morris & Joshua Oppenheimer's Revealing Reddit AMA For 'The Act of Killing'". Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  17. ^ a b The Act of Killing end credits
  18. ^ POV (17 January 2014). "Interview: Editor Niels Pagh Andersen | The Act of Killing | POV | PBS". POV | American Documentary Inc. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  19. ^ a b c Lange, Anne Thompson,Maggie; Thompson, Anne; Lange, Maggie (31 August 2012). "Documentary 'The Act of Killing' Premieres at Telluride, Screens at Toronto". IndieWire. Retrieved 26 October 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ISSN 1091-2339
    . Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  21. BRITDOC Foundation
    . Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  22. ^ Kay2012-10-31T18:46:00+00:00, Jeremy. "Drafthouse Films acquires US rights to The Act Of Killing". Screen. Retrieved 26 October 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ Wiseman2013-03-26T11:50:00+00:00, Andreas. "Dogwoof takes to The Act of Killing". Screen. Retrieved 26 October 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  24. ^ Hynes, Eric (17 January 2014). "Cut Here, Cut There, but It's Still 3 Hours". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  25. ^ "The Act of Killing". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 26 October 2023.Edit this at Wikidata
  26. ^ "The Act of Killing - L'Acte de Tuer" (in French). AlloCiné. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  27. ^ The Act of Killing Blu-ray (Blu-ray + Digital), retrieved 26 October 2023
  28. ^ "The Act of Killing Blu-ray". Dogwoof Shop. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  29. ^ "TONTON FILM | Jagal". Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  30. ^ JAGAL - The Act of Killing (full movie), retrieved 26 October 2023
  31. ^ "The Act Of Killing (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  32. ^ "The Act of Killing". Metacritic. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
  33. ^ Schager, Nick (17 July 2013). "The Act of Killing Is a Masterpiece of Murder and the Movies". The Village Voice. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  34. ^ Chris Hedges (23 September 2013). "The Act of Killing". Truthdig. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  35. ^ "Ruhi Hamid recommends", BBC Fresh, 29 August 2013. YouTube.
  36. ^ The Act of Killing DFI Film. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  37. ^ Apriadi Gunawan and Triwik Kurniasari, "Actors may sue director of lauded film on PKI killings", The Jakarta Post, 15 September 2012.]
  38. ^ "FEATURE: An overnight celebrity from 'The Act of Killing'", Yahoo News Malaysia.
  39. ^ Apriadi Gunawan, "1965 victims protest against 'The Act Of Killing'", The Jakarta Post, 30 September 2012.
  40. ^ "The Act of Killing", 3 DFI-FILM, Fall 2015.
  41. ^ Raillan Brooks, "Joshua Oppenheimer on The Act of Killing", Village Voice, 17 July 2013, p. 1.
  42. ^ Cribb, Robert (April–June 2013). "Review: An act of manipulation?". Inside Indonesia.
  43. ^ Melvin, Jess (April–June 2013). "An interview with Joshua Oppenheimer", Inside Indonesia.
  44. ^ Brad Simpson (28 February 2014). "It’s Our Act of Killing, Too". The Nation. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  45. ^ Marching, Soe Tjen (5 July 2013). "Coming to Grips With the Banality of Mass Murder in Indonesia's Past". Jakarta Globe. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  46. ^ Applebaum, Stephen (13 April 2013) "Indonesia's killing fields revisited in Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary", The Australian.
  47. ^ "Indonesia's Killing Fields". Al Jazeera. 101 East. 21 December 2012. Archived from the original on 14 February 2015.
  48. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (5 January 2015). "Peter Bradshaw's top 50 films of the demi-decade". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  49. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original
    on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  50. Sight & Sound. British Film Institute
    . Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  51. ^ "The 10 best films of 2013, No 1 – The Act of Killing". 20 December 2013.
  52. ^ "10 Best Films of 2013". LA Weekly. 19 December 2013. Archived from the original on 19 January 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
  53. ^ "Top 10 Movies of 2013". People. Archived from the original on 1 January 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
  54. ^ a b "The /Filmcast's Top 10 Films of 2013 - /Film". Slashfilm.com. 29 December 2013. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  55. ^ "The Best Documentaries of All Time". British Film Institute. 21 December 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  56. ^ "The 21st Century's 100 greatest films". BBC. 23 August 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  57. ^ "The 100 best films of the 21st century". The Guardian. 13 September 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  58. ^ "Oscars: Main nominations 2014". BBC. 16 January 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  59. ^ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (16 February 2014). Baftas 2014: The Act of Killing wins best documentary. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
  60. ^ Macaulay, Scott (17 February 2014). The Act of Killing Wins Documentary BAFTA; Director Oppenheimer’s Speech Edited Online. Filmmaker. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  61. ISBN 978-1-4008-8886-3
    . In short, Western states were not innocent bystanders to unfolding domestic political events following the alleged coup, as so often claimed. On the contrary, starting almost immediately after October 1, the United States, the United Kingdom, and several of their allies set in motion a coordinated campaign to assist the Army in the political and physical destruction of the PKI and its affiliates, the removal of Sukarno and his closest associates from political power, their replacement by an Army elite led by Suharto, and the engineering of a seismic shift in Indonesia's foreign policy towards the West. They did this through backdoor political reassurances to Army leaders, a policy of official silence in the face of the mounting violence, a sophisticated international propaganda offensive, and the covert provision of material assistance to the Army and its allies. In all these ways, they helped to ensure that the campaign against the Left would continue unabated and its victims would ultimately number in the hundreds of thousands.
  62. ^ Melvin, Jess (20 October 2017). "Telegrams confirm scale of US complicity in 1965 genocide". Indonesia at Melbourne. University of Melbourne. Retrieved 21 October 2017. The new telegrams confirm the US actively encouraged and facilitated genocide in Indonesia to pursue its own political interests in the region, while propagating an explanation of the killings it knew to be untrue.
  63. ISBN 978-0-8047-7182-5. Washington did everything in its power to encourage and facilitate the Army-led massacre of alleged PKI members, and U.S. officials worried only that the killing of the party's unarmed supporters might not go far enough, permitting Sukarno to return to power and frustrate the [Johnson] Administration's emerging plans for a post-Sukarno Indonesia. This was efficacious terror, an essential building block of the neoliberal
    policies that the West would attempt to impose on Indonesia after Sukarno's ouster.
  64. ISBN 978-1541742406
    . The United States was part and parcel of the operation at every stage, starting well before the killing started, until the last body dropped and the last political prisoner emerged from jail, decades later, tortured, scarred, and bewildered.
  65. ^ Perry, Juliet (21 July 2016). "Tribunal finds Indonesia guilty of 1965 genocide; US, UK complicit". CNN. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  66. ^ [61][62][63][64][65]
  67. ^ Lashmar, Paul; Gilby, Nicholas; Oliver, James (17 October 2021). "Slaughter in Indonesia: Britain's secret propaganda war". The Observer.
  68. ^ Sabarini, Prodita (16 February 2014). Director calls for US to acknowledge its role in 1965 killings. The Jakarta Post. Retrieved 17 February 2014.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Act_of_Killing&oldid=1218391469"