The killing fields of Indonesia

"What is war crime?" asks one of the subjects in Joshua Oppenheimer's new documentary Act of Killing. The subject had been a mastermind of a little-known Indonesian genocide--a brutal massacre of suspected Communists, ethnic Chinese and critics of the military junta that overthrew the government of President Sukarno in 1965.

The definition of war crimes is in the hands of winners, says the subject. Then, with a toothy grin, he adds, in this case he is the winner, so he gets to decide the definition.

Neither Anwar nor Herman, confess themselves to be remorseful war criminals; nor has history treated them as such, because both continue to live normal, even privileged lives in Indonesia, and in some quarters are even deemed heros.

Act of Killing isn't an usual documentary on historical atrocities and doesn't focus on the victims, survivors or the resistors. It focuses on the minds of the perpetrators who are monsters but nonetheless humans at the same time.

The director asks Anwar and Herman to recreate the brutal campaign they launched 50 years ago and killed 2.5 million people. The men, who look and talk and comport themselves like ordinary family men, happily collaborate on a series of elaborate re-enactments, using makeup, costumes and special effects to evoke the terror and (for Anwar and Herman, the glory) of the past. They become the stars and auteurs of a grandiose spectacle.

A startling thing about Act of Killing, writes film critic A.O. Scott, is that the killers,

Seem to have no interest in denying, excusing or minimizing their crimes. On the contrary, they are candid, even boastful about what they have done, and eager to share their recollections of torture and murder. “Never forget” is traditionally the slogan of victims fending off revisionism, indifference and the passage of time, but in this case the killers themselves seem most interested in keeping the memory alive.

Scott says that the deadpan way in which the documentary shows the killers does not dissipate the horror of it all:

Some queasiness may linger at the thought of a Western filmmaker indulging the creative whims of mass murderers, exploiting both their guilelessness and the suffering of Indonesians who remain voiceless and invisible here. But this discomfort is an important indicator of just how complicated, how perverse, the cinematic pursuit of truth can be. This is not a movie that lets go of you easily.