The Act of Killing
A charismatic former death‑squad commander agrees to dramatize his 1960s mass killings for a filmmaker, forcing him to confront the brutal reality behind his glorified myths before his twisted legacy is exposed.
“A story of killers who win and the society they build.”
Synopsis
This documentary presents a harrowing and innovative exploration of Indonesia's 1965–66 anti-communist purge, in which former death squad leaders reenact their real-life mass killings using the stylistic conventions of various film genres. As they re-create their past actions, the boundary between reality and performance becomes increasingly unclear, shedding light on the psychological effects of their crimes and the enduring legacy of the purge.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 25
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Nils Pagh AndersenShot by Anonymous
Box Office
2012 · Box office
📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.7× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$723K
Also known as
- Der Akt des Tötensde
- The Act of Killing - Der Akt des Tötensde
- L'atto di uccidereit
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Cast & Crew
25 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Anwar Congo
as Self - Executioner in 1965
Herman Koto
as Self - Gangster and Paramilitary Leader
Syamsul Arifin
as Self - Governor of North Sumatra
Ibrahim Sinik
as Self - Newspaper Publisher
Jusuf Kalla
as Self - Vice President of Indonesia
Adi Zulkadry
as Self - Fellow Executioner in 1965
Soaduon Siregar
as Self - Journalist
Suryono
as Self - Anwar's Neighbor
Safit Pardede
as Self - Local Paramilitary Leader
Yapto Soerjosoemarno
as Self - Leader of Pancasila Youth
Haji Marzuki
as Self - Member of North Sumatra Parliament
Haji Anif
as Self - Paramilitary Leader & Businessman
Supporting cast
2Directors
1Producers
4Other crew
7Parents Guide
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