Unsettling Redemption: The Ethics of Intrasubjectivity in 'The Act of Killing'

Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary 'The Act of Killing' adopts a novel experimental approach to addressing mass atrocity. Perpetrators of Cold War era anti-communist purges in Indonesia are invited to narrate their acts through familiar film genres. The resulting narrative appears to fit within the ideology of transitional justice, with its emphasis on practices of healing, remorse and redemption. Yet the structural dimensions of violence remain unaddressed within this frame. The moral economy of affect and empathy displaces a political analysis of enduring power imbalances and ongoing injustice.