The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer

“All murderers are punished, unless they kill in large numbers, and to the sound of trumpets”. This quote from Voltaire opens Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary ‘The Act of Killing’. The chilling and powerful documentary, produced by Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, focusses on the Indonesian death squad killers who played a key role in the 1966 killing of more than a million alleged Communist sympathizers. In this surreal, astonishing documentary, these men, who now respected politicians and heralded as local heroes, are asked to restage the wave of mass killings in 1960s Indonesia. Read more about ‘The Act of Killing’ in Slavoj Zizek’s philosophy text Welcome to the Kingdom of Animals about nationalism, mass violence, and crime in Purple Fashion magazine Issue 19. ‘The Act of Killing’ is now out in cinema’s in the USA, UK and Canada.

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