At 72 years old, Indonesian warlord Anwar Congo claims to be responsible for the deaths of more than 1,000 people over the course of his life. Joshua Oppenheimer’s Academy Award-nominated film The Act of Killing engages Congo and other death squad leaders to re-enact their crimes in a disturbing, highly cinematic exploration of human rights abusers and their killing sprees.
In this chilling and inventive documentary, executive produced by Errol Morris (The Fog Of War) and Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), the filmmakers examine a country where death squad leaders are celebrated as heroes, challenging them to reenact their real-life mass-killings in the style of the American movies they love. The hallucinatory result is a cinematic fever dream, an unsettling journey deep into the imaginations of mass-murderers and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit. Shaking audiences at the 2012 Toronto and Telluride Film Festivals and winning an Audience Award at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, The Act of Killing is an unprecedented film that, according to The Los Angeles Times, “could well change how you view the documentary form.”
“A masterpiece…& a major achievement.”
– The Village Voice
Starting tonight at Maysles Cinema, we look at one of 2013’s best-in-class documentaries, which has been shaking things up at festivals internationally – and is now widely considered to be a top contender for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards in a few short weeks.
Here’s the video:
This evening, we have the distinct pleasure of welcoming director Joshua Oppenheimer for a Q&A following the screening.
Seats are limited. Buy your tickets now.
Q&A with director Joshua Oppenheimer to follow the 7:00pm screening tonight!
