Drafthouse Films announced today the acquisition of Joshua Oppenheimer‘s new documentary The Act of Killing, which takes an interesting approach to documenting the history of Indonesian death squad leaders by asking them to reenact their real-life mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.
Documentarians Errol Morris and Werner Herzog have already weighed in on the film with Herzog saying, “I have not seen a film as powerful, surreal, and frightening in at least a decade, it is unprecedented in the history of cinema.” Morris adds, “like all great documentaries, The Act of Killing demands another way of looking at reality…an amazing and impressive film.”
You’ll get a strong hint at what kind of people the film is dealing with and what kind of acts they carried out by watching the trailer below.
Drafthouse is planning on a 2013 release and in their press release specifically state a “30-market theatrical release and awards campaign for Best Documentary Feature is planned.” They clearly have high hopes and confidence like that certainly piques my interest.
In a country where killers are celebrated as heroes, the filmmakers challenge unrepentant death squad leaders to dramatize their role in genocide. The hallucinatory result is a cinematic fever dream, an unsettling journey deep into the imaginations of mass-murderers and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit.
