A critical glance into the metacinematic gestures of The Act of Killing

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper investigates a productionist metafilm that exposes a singular organisational method: Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing. Productionist metafilms are reflexive works which display the processual dimension of filmmaking to the extent that the frontstage of production tends to coincide with the backstage. These films empower participants and exalt their incisive role, commonly subordinated to the decision-making power wielded by film directors. Their estranging character is mainly due to the presence of metacinematic gestures: film segments which exhibit cinema as a medium. This film analysis is approached through a dissection of the notion of gesture in productionist metafilms as imbued with impersonal markers of enunciation. The Act of Killing performs gestures which trigger forms of psychoanalytical self-examination in its participants while unpacking socio-cultural and organisational issues related to the Indonesian society and the nature of the filmmaking process. Through performances of role-playing and role-reversal, the film awakes the perpetrators’ suppressed sense of guilt and the consequences of impunity. Finally, it outstrips the narratives of denial and increases self-awareness of their complex psychological and socio-cultural condition.