Trivia

The project started with a focus on the family of the victims, but many were arrested as Joshua Oppenheimer was doing the interviews with them. In that process he started meeting torturers, so he decided to refocus the story on them.

The co-director, as well as 48 other members of the film crew in 27 different positions, are credited as Anonymous because they still fear revenge from the death-squad killers. The 41-year-old Indonesian who shared directing credit with Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn, could only wonder, 'How could these people tell these horrible stories so lightly and so proudly? You just want to challenge them right away. But you have to keep telling yourself to be patient, to let them tell the story the way they like. Because then we can learn something about the whole system of destruction.'

An audience member after a screening in Berlin said that what director Joshua Oppenheimer had done was "like having SS officers re-enact the Holocaust." Oppenheimer responded that it is not the same at all 'because 'the Nazis are no longer in power', while the death squad members shown in the documentary are still being protected by the Indonesian government.

The Indonesian death-squad members shown in the film - who actually re-create real murders they committed almost 50 years ago - were paid a 'modest per diem' for their dramatic efforts.

Joshua Oppenheimer began interviewing survivors and victims families of the events of 1965 before moving the focus of the film to the murderers following interference from local authorities. Anwar Congo was the 41st perpetrator/killer he interviewed.