Synopsis
Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary breakthrough invents an entirely new ethical form — letting unrepentant killers stage their crimes as the movie-musicals they imagined while committing them. The result is a documentary so unsettling it forces a reckoning with the entire genre's assumptions about truth.
Did You Know?
- Filmed over five years with the participation of confessed killers.
- Anwar Congo (the film's central figure) personally killed hundreds.
- Werner Herzog and Errol Morris co-produced.
- Nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar in 2014.
- Followed by the companion piece "The Look of Silence" from the victims' perspective.
Iconic Quotes
- "War crimes are defined by the winners."
- "It is not enough to be a gangster. You have to be a free man."
- "I had to make my conscience small."
- "I never expected to look like this."
- "Have I sinned?"
