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muscles twitch involuntarily. He sways backwards and falls to the ground and after a short time appears to be in a swoon. He finally composes himself, goes to his wurley. Unless help is forthcoming in the shape of a counter-charm administered by the hands of the Nangarri, or medicine-man, his death is only a matter of a compar- atively short time. (Basedow, 1925, pp. 178–179) Voodoo death was defined as death due not to disease or injury but due to emo- tional stress. Cannon assumed even this “immobilised response would be associ- ated with increased sympathetic nervous system excitation. If in the future, however any observer has opportunity to see an instance of voodoo death it is to be hoped that he will conduct the simpler tests before the victims last gasp”. (Cannon, 1942, p. 169) This is a brave film that examines the topic of faith and superstition in a way that not many directors have dared do before. The orphans’ bond with each other is traumatic and painfully disintegrated; while Alina is acting out, Voichita is removed from her feelings. Without setting out who is culpable or who is bad or good it shows that good intentions, where coupled with ignorance and institu- tional failings, have the same effect as indifference and lack of empathy. It is a human story that captures the issues of childhood trauma, superstitious sexual- ity, and what it means to love God, whether you are a man, or a woman.

References

Cannon, W. B. (1942). “Voodoo” death. American Anthropologist, 44(2): 169–181. Also avail- able http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1942.44.2.02a00010/epdf (accessed 31 May 2015). Basedow, H. (1925). The Australian Aboriginal. Adelaide: F. W. Preece and Sons.

The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer (Director), 2012

Orit Badouk Epstein

Imagine if forty years after the holocaust, the Nazis were still in power and the henchmen are being interviewed still boasting about their crimes. Oppenheimer, cited in Rapold, 2013

n 1965, Anwar Congo and his friends were small-time gangsters who used to sell film tickets on the black market. They are now the leaders of the pro- I regime paramilitary Panacasila Youth that flourished under the leadership of

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Indonesia’s General Suharto who was backed by the US. They are also celebrated mass murderers and death squad leaders, who are openly eager to re-enact the way in which they tortured and murdered over one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals. Like some feral children who were never guided by any social moral code they are now keen to reconstruct their crimes in the style of their favourite Hollywood movie genres. Oppenheimer takes us on a surreal journey that soon turns into a nightmare. The perpetrators enthusiastically create elaborate sets of torture chambers and burn villages using pyrotechnics. Anwar and his friends seem to delight in the opportunity to become true Hollywood stars. When challenged, Adi, who is one of the more senior perpetrators, angrily exclaims: “War crimes are defined by winners. I am a winner so I can make my own definition.” Unlike other films made about genocide, such as Shoah by Claude Lanzmann, this astonishing film is unprecedented because the war lords seem without conscience and have never attempted to cover up their crimes, nor make any effort to use any euphemisms to hide their guilt and shame away. On the contrary, even today they live a luxurious, corrupt, and banal life still prepared to show off their crimes and exert their power with terror and fear on the powerless citizens of present-day Indonesia. The film’s genius is in its use of the camera and interviews. Oppenheimer not only filmed the perpetrators bragging about mass killing but by asking them how they want to be seen and how they see themselves, the audience gets a rare glimpse into the mind-set of these unsophisticated and grotesque sociopaths. The perpetrators’ narcissism and their delusions of grandeur grow to pathetic heights when the documentary becomes, not about what they did, but about how the unscrupulous subjects in the film perceive themselves: “I believe even God have secrets” says Adi defiantly. Although it is hard to make sense of their blatant boasting, paradoxically this seems to be their only defence against such atrocities. The film is most affecting and hard to watch, and as a result I did find my mind occasionally wandering off. When Oppenheimer eventually makes the perpetra- tors also act as the victims of their own crimes, Anwar Congo, a grandfather and an animal lover, finally breaks down and realises that what he did was wrong: “Honestly I never expected it to be so brutal, I’ve done it to so many people, have I sinned?” he says in a moment of sad introspection. The camera is Anwar’s salvation: as well as mirroring his dark parts it is also his empathic witness that enables him to get in touch with a deeper place inside himself and reflect upon his crimes and perhaps even remember his own pain. In this intense and bleak film, Anwar’s gesture of remorse brings a sigh of relief, a glimpse of hope. Yet in a country where such sociopathic behaviour is the norm, where women are merely an object of sexual acts and its citizens are subjects to be used and abused, the viewer is left with great unease and discomfort of being a bystander in which dissociation is our only defence.

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References

Rapold, J. (2013). Interview: Joshua Oppenheimer by Nicolas Rapold in Film Comment, 15 July, 2013, Film Society of the Lincoln Centre. Available at: www.filmcomment. com/entry/interview-joshua-oppenheimer-the-act-of-killing (accessed 23 March, 2015). Shoah (1985). Film, Claude Lanzmann (Director).

Film Reviews