In the 1960s Anwar Congo was a leader in Indonesia's pro-regime paramilitary the Pancasila Youth who along with his band of dedicated followers was amongst those who participated in the murder and torture more than a million alleged Communists ethnic Chinese and intellectuals. Proud of their deeds and completely unpunished Anwar and his pals are delighted when the film's director ask them to re-enact these murders for their documentary - in any genre they desire. Initially Anwar and his friends enthusiastically take up the challenge using hired actors... making elaborate sets and costumes and even using pyrotechnic but eventually as the movie violence is played out and reconstructed Anwar finally begins to feel unease and remorse. The Look of Silence Through Joshua Oppenheimer's work filming perpetrators of the Indonesian genocide a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered and the identity of the men who killed him. The youngest brother is determined to break the spell of silence and fear under which the survivors live and so confronts the men responsible for his brother's murder - something unimaginable in a country where killers remain in power. [show more]
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Double bill of documentaries directed by Joshua Oppenheimer. 'The Act of Killing' (2012), is an Academy Award-nominated documentary about members of the Indonesian death squads who tortured and killed over 500,000 people throughout 1965 and 1966. Joshua Oppenheimer meets with Anwar Congo, a man who is proud and boastful of his involvement in the killings and who still lives alongside relatives of the people he has murdered. In an attempt to understand Anwar's attitudes towards the atrocities he personally committed, Oppenheimer asks that he recreate some of his more memorable killings with the help of the film crew and equipment. What transpires is a surreal and harrowing look at one of the most terrible acts of genocide which encourages reflection not only from the spectator but the participants themselves. The film received an Oscar nomination and the BAFTA for Best Documentary. 'The Look of Silence' (2014), examines the anti-communist purge that took place in Indonesia between 1965-'66 in which an estimated one million people died at the hands of the miltary dictatorship. Born shortly after these tragic events, optician Adi sets out to confront those responsible for the death of the brother he never knew. He interviews former death squad leaders and, with the help of his family, questions how the country has still not accepted this part of its heritage. As he learns the shocking details from this period of history, Adi also discovers that the same threat of violence is still ever-present in his home country.
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