Page - 29 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/01

The Banality of Ghosts | 29www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/1, 15–34 erasure by totalitarian jargon (useful/not useful, worthy/unworthy etc.), he points to bodily responses (shivering, repulsion) to its violence, which he calls “das Hinzutretende” (addendum).48 They form a non-rational addendum to to- tal rational control. Violence may be justified, legitimised, denied, celebrated or glorified, but these discourses cannot prevent the body from responding. For Adorno, this response is an a-rational and almost Messianic sign of a truly free humanity, which through a “natural” modus resists violent categorical identifi- cations. Despite Congo’s justification and proud acknowledgement of his role in the killings, the ghosts that have been fanatically denied reappear in his dreams and finally find a physical way out. The fever dream ends in a disgusting scene at a former killing site (kantor darah, or blood office, as Congo calls it). Congo has stated at the beginning of the film that this place is inhabited by “many ghosts”. The “some sort of remorse and moral awakening” that Rochter identifies makes the film more acceptable. The public has been waiting for such recogni- tion of guilt, and despite its significance, this makes the message of the film less powerful. This moment of implicit conversion finally exposes Congo as the vulnerable grandfather in ways that the audience can relate to. But this scene, with a trajectory for Congo that is not shared by the other killers who feature in the film, leads away from Oppenheimer’s initial intent to show the impact of im- punity. It is, however, in line with the profound humanity that Congo assumes, evident in his vomiting, a physical expression of the collision of his impunity and his humanity. He has been found guilty, but not by the legal courts but by something within himself that breaks through the powerful categorisations of the New Order regime. The other killers, by contrast, continue to reside in their ghost-filled banality. Their strategies of adjuration will never allow these ghosts to haunt. This “happy ending” makes the movie powerful for a Western public which has seen their Nazis convicted, but less powerful for an Indonesian public that still awaits reparation by the state.49 FINALLY UNCOVERING HUMANITY The Act of Killing is not about the G30S. Facts and details are missing, as are victims other than Suryono. Because such information for the specific case of the G30S is lacking, the movie reaches more general concerns about human violence. Although analyses of violence suggest it is an exception and normally hard to perform and left uncelebrated,50 we have many instances of routinised violence, remorseless killers and readiness to adapt categories of power. The 48 Adorno 1966, 226. 49 Bjerregaard 2014. 50 Collins 2008.