They explicitly fashioned themselves and their murder methods after their Hollywood idols. Anwar and his friends were devoted fans of James Dean, John Wayne, and Victor Mature. They hated the communists for boycotting American films - the most popular (and profitable) in the cinemas. In 1965, the army recruited them to form death squads because they had a proven capacity for violence. In their youth, Anwar and his friends spent their lives at the movies, for they were "movie theatre gangsters": they controlled a black market in tickets, while using the cinema as a base of operations for more serious crimes. It offers a nightmarish vision of a frighteningly banal culture of impunity in which killers can joke about crimes against humanity on televised chat shows, and celebrate moral disaster with the ease and grace of a soft shoe dance number. The Act of Killing is a journey into the memories and imaginations of the perpetrators, offering insight into the minds of mass killers. Instead, they have written their own victorious history, becoming role models for millions of young paramilitaries. Unlike ageing Nazis or Rwandan génocidaires, Anwar and his friends have not been forced by history to admit to participating in crimes against humanity. The Act of Killing is about killers who have triumphed, and the sort of society they have formed. The organization's power is considerable enough for its leaders to include government ministers, and for its members to gloat over everything from corruption and election rigging to acts of mass genocide.
Today, Anwar is revered as a founding father of the right-wing paramilitary organization grown out of the death squads. As the executioner for the most notorious death squad in his city, Anwar alone killed hundreds of people with his own hands. They assisted the army in killing over one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in under a year.
When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his friends were promoted from small-time gangsters selling black market movie tickets to death squad leaders. Their foray into filmmaking is celebrated on television - even though Anwar Congo and his friends are mass murderers. Watch both versions of The Bridge on Netflix.THE ACT OF KILLING Director: JOSHUA OPPENHEIMERĪnwar Congo and his friends have been dancing their way through musical numbers, twisting arms in film noir gangster scenes, and galloping across prairies as yodelling cowboys. If you’re looking for a capable replacement for the indefatigable Sarah Linden, Saga Norén is more than up to the task. The show also spawned an American adaptation of the same name, which also aired for two seasons and received rave reviews, just as its predecessor.
Reception for the show has been positive with the series already having won two Golden Nymph Awards for Best European Drama Series and Best Actor in a Drama Series. The Bridge is a creative Scandinavian collaborative effort between Sweden and Denmark that brings the riveting investigations of police detective Saga Norén to life.ĭetective Norén is introduced to audiences as the series starts off with the discovery of a dead body found right in the middle of a bridge, which links two countries together, necessitating a joint investigation between detectives from either side. In recent years, more and more women are taking the lead role as protagonists in crime dramas and The Bridge is no different.