The Act of Killing

Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, The Act of Killing is a journey into the memories and imaginations of perpetrators, offering insight into the minds of mass killers. The Act of Killing is about killers who have won, and the sort of society they have built. Unlike aging Nazis or Rwandan génocidaires, they have not been forced by history to admit they participated in crimes against humanity. Instead, they have written their own triumphant history, becoming role models for millions of young paramilitaries. The Act of Killing is a nightmarish vision of a frighteningly banal culture of impunity in which killers can joke about crimes against humanity on television chat shows, and celebrate moral disaster with the ease and grace of a soft shoe dance number.