Edition 24: 1–9 August, 2025

Focus Nordic

The Act of Killing

Denmark, Norway, United Kingdom
2012 — 159' / Color

1

Synopsis

In a country where killers are celebrated as heroes, the filmmakers challenge unrepentant death squad leaders to dramatize their role in genocide. The hallucinatory result is a cinematic fever dream, an unsettling journey deep into the imaginations of mass-murderers and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit.

Director Biography

Joshua Oppenheimer was born in Austin, Texas. He has directed the documentaries The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase and, with Christine Cynn, The Globalisation Tapes and The Act of Killing.

Director

Joshua Oppenheimer

Producer

Anne Köhncke

Signe Byrge Sørensen

Torstein Grude

Cinematographer

Carlos Arango de Montis

Lars Skree

Editor

Ariadna Fatjó-Vilas Mestre

Charlotte Munch Bengtsen

Janus Billeskov Jansen

Mariko Montpetit

Niels Pagh Andersen

Sound

Gunn Tove Grønsberg

Henrik Garnov

Official Film Website

http://theactofkilling.com/

Contact

Maria Berendt Oldhøj Nielsen
Danish Film Institute
Gothersgade 55
1123, Copenhagen, Denmark
[email protected]