Just saw one of the most powerful and disturbing documentaries of all times.

The background: when the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his friends were promoted from small-time gangsters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year. As the executioner for the most notorious death squad in his city, Anwar himself killed hundreds of people with his own hands.

THE ACT OF KILLING is a film about killers who have won, and the sort of society they have built. Unlike ageing Nazis or Rwandan génocidaires, Anwar and his friends 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 film is a journey into the memories and imaginations of the perpetrators, offering insight into the minds of mass killers. The documentary allows the killers to stage the genocide they have executed, adapted to their favorite film genres – gangster, western, musical. They write the scripts. They play themselves. And they play their victims.

I found the film deeply disturbing, not only because of the committed crimes but because it gives a fascinating inside into the way the human mind works under specific circumstances. The story is so unbelievable that after more than 5 years of shooting director Joshua Oppenheimer got Werner Herzog and Errol Morris on board as executive producers. Here's what Herzog says about it: "I have not seen a film as powerful, surreal, and frightening in at least a decade...it is unprecedented in the history of cinema" (see more on the film by the two documentary masters).

So go see it on the big screen - showing at Landmark Sunshine until 25 July (and more screenings here) - a must, must see!

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