The Act of Killing is a documentary directed by Joshua Oppenhaimer. I found it to be very interesting and meaningful. It made me inquire about subjects such as the subjectivity of morality and the conflict of values. It also made me think about the essence of human nature; are we born evil or is evil induced in us through socialization.

The film takes place in Indonesia, where the director follows some high profile gangsters in a city of the country. The thing about this city is that, unlike societies that hate murderers and gangsters, this society applaud and express obvious admiration for these serial killers. Even though each of them murdered a massive amount of people, media keeps praising them and television keeps debating about them, creating this “untouchable” almost semi-god like figures that enjoy an unlimited amount of freedom, power, and respect from society.

After introducing these murderers and giving the audience a background information about their wrongdoings, the film follows on of the killers, Anwar Congo, as he reenacts through musical numbers his most infamous (famous?) mass murders. It was shocking to see his relation with the town people as he is performing the scene. On one hand, the people are terrorized by this guy and do not dare to keep him away from whatever he requests; on the other side, it appears like he is sort of a hero in the community to. They cheer as he pretends to kill tens of people, scene that a couple of decades ago took the life of many innocent citizens. I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. What type of sadistic, value-conflicted society is this? How is this type of people regarded so highly, instead of being locked up in jail for the rest of their lives. I was impressed by the role of media in this situation.  People hear the radio, or watch propaganda film or television, where the actions of these people are said to be great, fun, beneficial for their society and human race in general. The impact media has on any society is strong and almost inevitable, and when it is used as a propaganda medium the repercussions it can have are catastrophic. That is what happened in Indonesia, media  twisted the story of the happenings, and creating a value conflict in where right and wrong are blurred and mixed.

For a long time I thought the movie was going to be somehow linear. I thought that it was going to see Anwar Congo joyfully reenact his murders with the intention of creating a movie that would terrorize anyone who is not on his good side. However, halfway through the movie, as the scenes he is reenacting become more realistic, Anwar seems to undergo a sort of “humanization”. It appears that he is being taken over by remorse over his actions,  to the point of even experiencing physically sickness. The movie is left with that open-end, not knowing he his remorse, or at least what it seemed like remorse, actually was strong enough to make a change in his life. In short, The Act of Killing is a very good documentary with a interesting twist that makes you think about the nature of evil and the conflict of values that factors like propaganda can have.