If there were a subtitle to Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Act of Killing," it could be "Fun Loving War Criminals." A cadre of aging Indonesian gangsters relive their part in a pogrom against communists in the sixties.

In the political chaos of the time, the Indoneisan army staged a coup in order to pre-empt a suspected communist takeover of the government and saved Mel Gibson and Sigourney

According to interviews which he gave afterward Werner Herzog was shaken up by it, and it's understandable why. When shooting for "The act of killing", which he co-executive-produced, began, it's likely that he did not know such a major upheaval was about to occur in documentary filmmaking. Just like Joshua Oppenheimer, who lensed this film, did not expect to shoot such a documentary upon returning to Indonesia.