The Act of Killing: Sins Appearing on the Surface of the Crystal-Image

Abstract

As one of the critical concepts in Gilles Deleuze's philosophy of cinema, crystal-image makes visible the pure state of time that contains the real and the imaginary, the present and the past, the actual and the virtual in a way that cannot be distinguished from each other. This type of image, in which the virtuality of the past and the actuality of the present coexist, is of great importance in providing an audio-visual context that can be investigated to discover the connection between time and memory. In this article, firstly, based on Henri Bergson's views on time and memory, recollection-image and the use of flashback will be considered, and in connection with this, it will be explained what the crystal-image is. Then, it is aimed to reveal the characteristics of the perfect crystal-image, which is the first of the four types mentioned by Deleuze, through the analysis of The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012), which is identified as one of the contemporary examples. In line with this goal, the self-confrontation of paramilitary gang leader Anwar Congo, who is the main character, through becoming a spectator of his own life due to the manifestation of the pure state of time within the crystal-image, will be explained by analyzing certain scenes selected from the documentary. In addition, the possibility of transmission of the crystallized personal memory to the silver screen independently and objectively from the fictional history that surrounds it will be investigated, and the possible practical benefits of crystal-image will be addressed through the change in the perception of the national and international public opinion regarding the Indonesian mass killings of 1965-1966 after the screening of the documentary.