The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. Documentaries about the personal and psychological effects of the massacre of ~1M suspected communists (really just working people in unions, landless farmers, and some intellectuals) in Indonesia in the 60s and 70s following the military coup in 1965. This was directly aided and abetted by the US and other Western nations. The US intelligence aparatus provided lists of suspected communists to the coup government which then interned them in concentration camps and murdered them. The Indonesian perpetrators of the mass murders still directly control the government, military, and police.
The Act of Killing is a strangely surreal exploration of the banality of evil and a character study of members of Indonesian death squads as they make a movie (a very strange movie) about their actions during the massacres and are confronted with the effects of their actions - both their own psychological trauma as well as the pain and suffering they inflicted upon others.
The Look of Silence is a deeply personal documentary that follows Adi, an optometrist, and his family as he travels rural Indonesia interviewing people involved in the brutal murder of his brother under the pretense of fitting them for glasses (he presumably actually makes glasses for them).
A bit dark for the holidays, but they are amazing films. Deeply disturbing, sad, moving, and often funny films about a period of history that doesn’t get talked about much in the West.
The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. Documentaries about the personal and psychological effects of the massacre of ~1M suspected communists (really just working people in unions, landless farmers, and some intellectuals) in Indonesia in the 60s and 70s following the military coup in 1965. This was directly aided and abetted by the US and other Western nations. The US intelligence aparatus provided lists of suspected communists to the coup government which then interned them in concentration camps and murdered them. The Indonesian perpetrators of the mass murders still directly control the government, military, and police.
The Act of Killing is a strangely surreal exploration of the banality of evil and a character study of members of Indonesian death squads as they make a movie (a very strange movie) about their actions during the massacres and are confronted with the effects of their actions - both their own psychological trauma as well as the pain and suffering they inflicted upon others.
The Look of Silence is a deeply personal documentary that follows Adi, an optometrist, and his family as he travels rural Indonesia interviewing people involved in the brutal murder of his brother under the pretense of fitting them for glasses (he presumably actually makes glasses for them).
A bit dark for the holidays, but they are amazing films. Deeply disturbing, sad, moving, and often funny films about a period of history that doesn’t get talked about much in the West.