Joshua Oppenheimer | 2012 | Drafthouse Films
★★★★★ Governance Insight Rating
Executive Brief
“The Act of Killing” is a haunting documentary that reveals how organizational cultures can systematically suppress moral awareness and normalise unethical behavior.
Anwar Congo, a central figure in the documentary, reflects on his actions by stating, "We were like movie stars. We had our own style."
This statement reveals how performance and narrative can be used to normalise unethical behaviour. The film is a haunting examination of how organizational cultures can systematically suppress moral awareness. It is powerful viewing for directors seeking to understand how governance systems either enable or prevent institutional moral blindness. The film contains disturbing content about mass violence.
The Setup
The "Act of Killing” is an Indonesian documentary that follows perpetrators of 1960s mass killings as they reenact their crimes for the camera, revealing how ordinary individuals become complicit in systematic violence through organizational structures that normalise unethical behavior. The film exposes the psychological and social mechanisms that enable institutional moral failure - dynamics that, while extreme in this context, operate in subtler forms within many organizational cultures.
Governance in Action
The film demonstrates the catastrophic failure of collective mindfulness, which is an organizational capability for ethical awareness and stakeholder consideration. The perpetrators' ability to discuss mass murder with casual indifference reveals how institutional cultures can systematically suppress moral reasoning and empathetic response.
The documentary illustrates how hierarchical structures, peer pressure, and ideological justification combine to create moral disengagement - the psychological process by which ethical standards are deactivated. The men's theatrical reenactments show how narrative construction and group reinforcement can transform atrocity into acceptable behaviour.
Most chillingly , he film reveals how intelligent, functional individuals can participate in systematic harm when organizational cultures provide justification frameworks. This demonstrates the critical importance of ethical intention and stakeholder consideration in leadership.
Behind the Camera
Director Joshua Oppenheimer's approach of allowing perpetrators to direct their own reenactments creates a unique window into how organizational cultures shape moral awareness. The men's choice of filmmaking genres, such as gangster movies and musicals, reveals how popular narratives can be co-opted to justify unethical behaviour.
The film's most powerful moments occur when the theatrical framework breaks down and perpetrators confront the reality of their actions. These breakthrough moments illustrate the potential for moral awareness to resurface when organizational justification systems are temporarily suspended.
The documentary's unflinching approach forces viewers to confront how easily institutional cultures can normalise behavior that individuals would reject in other contexts.
The Business Case
While extreme, the film illustrates governance failures that operate in subtler forms across many organizations: the suppression of dissenting voices, the normalisation of stakeholder harm through ideological justification, and the systematic erosion of individual moral agency through institutional pressure.
The perpetrators' ability to maintain social respectability while discussing mass violence demonstrates how organizational cultures can create cognitive compartmentalisation that separates professional behaviour from ethical consequences. This dynamic appears in less extreme forms when boards approve decisions that harm stakeholders while maintaining social and professional legitimacy.
The film shows how hierarchical authority and peer conformity can override individual moral judgement—dynamics that require explicit countermeasures in governance systems designed to protect stakeholder interests.
Cultural Context
"The Act of Killing" emerged from Indonesia's long silence about mass violence, making it a powerful examination of how societies and institutions avoid confronting uncomfortable truths. The film's international acclaim reflected growing global awareness of institutional accountability and the need for systematic approaches to preventing organizational moral failure.
The documentary's impact, contributing to increased discussion of historical accountability in Indonesia, demonstrates how honest examination of institutional failures can catalyze cultural and systemic change.
Boardroom Application
- Implement Moral Awareness Protocols: Boards need explicit processes for surfacing and examining the moral dimensions of strategic decisions, including systematic stakeholder impact assessment.
- Create Dissent Protection Systems: Boards must establish robust protections for directors who raise ethical objections, including anonymous reporting mechanisms and explicit appreciation for moral courage.
- Establish Ethical Reality-Testing: Boards can benefit from regular ethical audits by independent parties who can identify moral blind spots that internal dynamics might obscure.
- Develop Moral Imagination Practices: Boards need structured practices for cultivating moral imagination—the ability to understand and feel the impact of decisions on affected parties.
The film's most crucial lesson: intelligent individuals can become complicit in systematic harm when institutional cultures suppress moral awareness. Effective governance requires explicit, systematic attention to ethical development and moral courage. These capabilities must be continuously cultivated, not assumed.
