A MOST DISTURBING TALE
The audience at the National Film Corporation, Ikoyi must have seen several movie genres: action, thrillers, suspense and horrors but none of these can be as horrifying and painfully difficult to watch as the 2012 documentary movie directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous, titled, The Act of Killing. Perhaps, the 1981 blockbuster, Amin: The Rise and Fall would come close in the reel show of horror and unbridled violence. For one, it tells of a real-life experience in Indonesia, a massacre of a huge dimension which started in 1965 and ended 1966. Secondly, the movie provides graphic details on individuals who participated in the killings and other acts of criminality against the communists in Indonesia. Produced by Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, Joram Ten Ten Brink and Andre Singer, the documentary is a University of Westminster project which won the 2013 European Film Award for Best Documentary, the Asia Pacific Screen Award, and was nominated for the Academy Award for the Best Documentary feature at the 86th Academy Awards.
In his acceptance speech at 67th BAFTA Awards, Oppenheimer accused both the USA and the UK of participating and ignoring these crimes against humanity. Expectedly, the movie has sparked negative reactions from the Indonesian government that has described the movie as “misleading”, not portraying Indonesia in good light. Any movie director would like the sight of well-garnished noodles from Indonesia but not even the kitchen steam can blur the images of the past horrors that the people of Indonesia have to live with and that the world must know.
The technique of movie-within-amovie in the director’s cut which is 159 minutes has an underlying sarcasm which is very nauseating. Just imagine a man who speaks loftily of his expertise at taking the life of another human being. His name is Anwar Congo, the central character in the narrative and the right wing man of the paramilitary group, Pancasila. While others shed blood mercilessly during the bloodbath, Congo devised the string slaughter technique in strangling people. Having killed no fewer than 1000 persons across ages and gender, he enjoyed watching life go out of the human body. If you think that is barbaric, then wait for this: Congo, at the location for the film to commemorate the anniversary of the killings, revealed through re-enactment how he killed a man’s baby in his presence. He said for those who offered their children to be killed in place of their lives, he would torture them by making them see the horror of the killing. He took a doll to demonstrate this using a pair of scissors, ripped the baby doll’s belly, brought out the intestines and chewed on them. How disgusting!
Houses occupied by the communists were razed by the gangsters made up of the men of Pancasila. Before the killings, the gangsters earned a living from selling American movies and black market theatre tickets. But Suharto overthrew Sukarno as President of Indonesia and explored the gangsters in perpetrating this evil which powerful nations decidedly ignored. The ethnic Chinese who were part of the communists group were extorted. The documentary, Act of Killing relies a lot on the power of the viewer’s imagination; the more powerful it is, the more graphic the horrors would become in one’s mind.
In the communists’ abode, their women were sexually assaulted and the under-aged girls were defiled or raped, if you like. One of the gangsters A scene from The Act of Killing interviewed confessed without remorse about how he relished the rape of 14-year old female and even laughed at the thought. Another one dared anyone to take them all to the International Criminal Court, Hague on their brutal activities. One thing was common to all the men; killing meant nothing to them. It was like a duty to the nation; a task that should be done effortlessly and well, creatively. In all, and though statistics vary, 2.5million communists were killed in the massacre. Over the years, there was no reconciliation, the hate grew and the killings were open secret. The media interviewed neocommunists and as soon as the interview session was over, the communists were handed over to the gangsters who must have prepared a series of killing mechanisms for them. Sometimes, the victims were led into the bush to be slaughtered and their internal organs are either eaten savagely by the killers or fed to animals.
The film was shot mostly in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, between 2005 and 2011. Curiously too, the name Anonymous appears 49 times under 27 different crew positions in the credits. These crew members are reportedly living in fear revenge from the deathsquad killers.
Congo played the victim of the killings in the movie-within-a-movie while Herman Koto tortured him the way the gangsters did. It was at this point that Congo came to the self-realisation that killing was indeed a very grievous act. He admitted that although he didn’t see any harm in what he was doing back then, the faces of the people he had killed still haunted him at night. He deals with headache, insomnia and constant nightmares. He vomited in the face of the camera as his stomach churned at the evil he had done at the rooftop where most of his killings were done. Congo’s friends, who spoke unrestrainedly with the directors of the movie, worried about the outcome of the documentary. They didn’t want the communists to look like victims. But how exactly would that be possible?
When the movie ended, the sobriety is in the air was thick and the Director, Goethe-Institut, Nigeria, Marc-Andre Schmachtel watched the audience’s reaction and just let the credits roll. There was no applause for about 20 seconds after the movie ended and then someone led the applause. Slowly, it circulated the room. Didi Cheeka, a filmmaker and critic, examined the directors’ fidelity to history and truth while commending them for attempting to interrogate history. While others remarked that Nigerian documentary film makers have not tried to interrogate some historic events such as the Nigerian Civil War, this reporter pointed to the fact that most film-makers operate within the context of censorship by film-regulating authorities. The result being that a film-maker may have a romantic movie with the Biafran war as the background and the public screening would be stalled or not allowed by a film and broadcast regulatory body. Cheeka added that the non-availability of footages and other requisite materials would also dampen the spirit of many Nigerian film-makers in spearheading such thankless job.
The Act of Killing is not to be viewed by an under-aged person for its use of strong language, message of hate, depictions of violence and vivid imagery of gross inhumanity. The Lagos screening was made possible by Lagos Film Society, Goethe-Institut and British Council.