American director Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Act of Killing" is set in Indonesia in 1965 when the government is carrying out the extermination of its communist opponents. Oppenheimer recreates some of these massacres. In this anti-communist purge, more than 500,000 people lost their lives. The armed forces were backed by the United States and led by General Suharto, who would later rule Indonesia for decades. The film was co-directed by Christine Sin and an Indonesian co-director who remains anonymous for fear of reprisals, as does the Indonesian film crew.
Oppenheimer spent more than eight years interviewing Indonesian death squad leaders, and in The Act of Killing, the film focuses on the figure of Anwar Congo. The executive producers are Werner Herzog and Errol Morris.
The scenes are set in the style of his favourite film genres: gangster, western and musical. Oppenheimer has called the result “a documentary of the imagination”. It won the 2013 European Film Award for Best Documentary, the Asia Pacific Screen Award and was nominated for an Oscar in 2014. It was also the winner of the Best Documentary at the 2014 BAFTA Awards. It also won an award at the Documenta Madrid.