After the Indonesian coup in 1965, President Suharto came to power, followed by a brutal purge against the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). There were corpses piled up in mountains or abandoned in ditches everywhere. We may never know the exact number, but in those short years, more than one million people were killed.
Many years later, when director Josh. When Joshua Oppenheimer (Joshua Oppenheimer) went to Indonesia to do a project in 2004, by chance, he came into contact with a group of people who had survived that time. After listening to their stories, he became an indirect witness to countless atrocities in North Sumatra, and he also witnessed the long-term tolerance of the people there to this terrifying crime. The eldest executioner who spoke with him still lives in the place where the Suharto government committed the crime and is very happy to talk about the past. It is these experiences that became the driving force behind Oppenheimer's creation of The Act of Killing.
"The perpetrators I met were very contented. Their narrative approach was more like acting," Oppenheimer said at the Berlin Film Festival. "In 2005, my idea was not to make them repent of what happened in 1965. I understand that just providing these evidence is not enough to break the silence. In fact, these murderers have been talking about the past. . This does not constitute a confession at all. At the beginning, I wanted to figure out how they can show off so much and how they are connected with the fears I have seen.”
The main focus of the film is on a person called Anwar. ﹒ Anwar Congo's person is a man who claims to be a gangster, a playboy; he likes American movies very much. In his early years, he made money by selling scalper tickets in front of theaters in the capital of Medan. When the threat of communism began to intensify throughout the country, Anwar and his friends (including some high-ranking officials) began a bloody carnival that slaughtered thousands with their deep adoration of manliness in American movies. To this day, none of them has been prosecuted.
Josh. Oppenheimer, filmed by Oliver Clasper for VICE.
At the beginning of the film, Anwar with white hair is revisiting a building. From 1965 to 1966, he carried out countless killings here. He said that at first his method of killing was always very dirty, so he began to hang the victims with iron wire because it was so clean and neat. In the film, he frankly demonstrated this technique. When the scene that he couldn't bear to look directly at was finished, he danced the cha cha dance.
Oppenheimer interpreted Anwar’s actions in this way: “He was trying to perceive pain in a certain way, trying to make a good-looking movie to make what he did seem innocent, and he wanted to perform, Come to forget yourself. I think something very dark was aroused in the process. In the end, I think Anwar has no courage to say to himself when looking in the mirror every day,'Yes, I made a mistake at that time. "I don't think he knows how to live that way. He is either crazy and glorious, or he just keeps talking about these things."
Other prominent figures in the film include Herman, a hippy smiling face, a round body, and a stick. A bully with a ponytail and full of political ambitions. There is also Anwar's old friend Adi Zulkadry, a man who claims to have never felt any guilt or remorse for his crimes.
Throughout the filming process, Oppenheimer encouraged them to repeat the killing scenes of the year, allowing them to play the victim or executioner with increasingly extravagant costs and unimaginable setting. They wore high-end suits and hats, even skirts; in one of the scenes, Anwar played the victim, he was tied up, gagged, and beaten to exhaustion. This was just a performance, but this recurrence started to upset him and be at a loss.
While the vast majority of critics and fans praised "Killing Action", some people also questioned the director's motives, worried that Oppenheimer used such an open form to show the perpetrators, but ignored the survivors. Our plight. However, after getting along with Oppenheimer, who is committed to the truth of film aesthetics and harmony (he also speaks Indonesian), what I feel after getting along is that-no matter what the consequences are, he is determined to pursue it. "The problem is that humans are always afraid," he said. "We can't be afraid of the truth, otherwise it would be equivalent to dancing on the cliff with our eyes closed, and then falling into the abyss."
He also said that the world is not as black and white as most of us hope. In order to find what we are looking for, we must empathize with your enemies. "I still remember that when my mother asked me if I forgave Anwar, I didn't understand this question at all. During the whole process of making this movie, I didn't know how to judge others. I can only say you It’s a person who has done bad things, but you can’t go further and directly say that you are a bad person. From a family perspective, my father and stepmother were both Jews and died under the butcher knife of the Nazis. If we want to understand what happened in the past In any event, you must understand that you are not living in a world where good and evil are clearly distinguished like "Star Wars."
In 2011, when Oppenheimer had accumulated more than 1,000 hours of material, editing work finally began. After the rough cut version came out, the famous director Werner. Herzog (Werner Herzog) and Errol. Errol Morris saw the film. The two directors valued this film extremely seriously and agreed to be the producer of this film. The support of these two renowned directors played a very beneficial role in promoting this work: "Herzog said to me,'Josh, art does not bring about change...' Then he Watched me for a long time in a way that only Herzog could do, and then said, "...but some works do."
" A scene from "Killing Action"
"Killing Action" caused a huge response after its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, followed by its official premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Next, it also participated in film festivals such as Hong Kong and SXSW. More importantly, this film has been screened in Indonesia for more than 300 times. Although it is currently banned, there are still countless magazine and newspaper articles about it.
Oppenheimer's main purpose is to let more and more people see this movie. "If this film can't be released locally, then we will continue to discuss it as a hot spot until it gets a bigger response-such as an Oscar nomination," he said hopefully. "This will force the Indonesian government to pay attention to it, or at least get the attention of the Indonesian people. Later, we will release a DVD to allow more people to own the film. As long as people can be inspired by it, they feel that the film is very similar to what they have seen in the past. I’m not the same, I’m very proud of it.”
Vice movie column: http://vice.cn/index.php/Read/act-of-killing-joshua-oppenheimer
Author: Oliver Galaspo (Oliver Clasper)
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