Monday 24 February 2014

2013: SCENE OF THE YEAR - ANWAR'S FINAL ACT (THE ACT OF KILLING)


Joshua Oppenheimer's unforgettable documentary focuses on the state-sanctioned mass murderers of suspected communists in 1960s Indonesia, still hailed as heroes in their homeland today, and the lavish recreations they choreograph of their disgraceful acts that half-century ago. In the film's outstanding final sequence, Oppenheimer's subject, Anwar Congo, unwittingly reverses the scenario, producing an unrehearsed act of dishonesty under the guise of honesty. It's the antipode of what Congo has presented all along: from fictionalised versions of the truth, here is a truthful depiction of a great lie - outwardly, an attempt to admit responsibility and the unspeakable personal consequences that entails, but inwardly, it's as vile an act of emotional violence he has committed in all his dreadful life. It's a horrible, riveting scene, and certainly the most memorable of any in the cinema of 2013.

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