The Real of Reality: Joshua Oppenheimer

»The Act of Killing«

by Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn (Co-Director) (Denmark, 2011)

After the 1965 military coup in Indonesia more than one million people were murdered. Until today the victims and their descendants didn’t dare tell their story, because the perpetrators are still in power. Not only are they in power, they boast about being the winners of history. The American documentary director Joshua Oppenheimer decided, together with his colleague Christine Cynn, to talk to the murderers. In a country which celebrates these murderers as heroes, the filmmakers dared to face the taboo and the terror. Free from any regret, the murderers tell about their deeds and are willing happily to reenact and restage them. Eventually, the film project gets the men to talk and think about their atrocities which they haven’t reflected hitherto. Through this reflection, the retroactive restating of reality becomes more real than the actual deeds ever had been for those men. The Real forges ahead through the “imitation” of the past events. The movie, which needed ten years for production, struggled with funding for a long time, but is now considered to be one of the most important filmic works of contemporary cinema. The movie was awarded more than 30 awards.

Video Documentary:

ZKM | Institute for Visual Media

Camera: Christina Zartmann
Editing: Frenz Jordt
Live Editing: Moritz Büchner