Indie picks for the summer

Since it premiered at the Telluride and Toronto festivals last year, Denmark-based director Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary about Indonesia's anti-communist massacres in 1965-66 has reaped rave reviews. 

Now playing in UK cinemas since end of June, "The Act of Killing" continues to attract extraordinary coverage, as shown in this impressive list of five-star reviews: 

★★★★★ "The most compelling thing you'll ever see" – The Guardian
★★★★★ "Fascinating, chilling, but important film" – Independent on Saturday
★★★★★ "Shatteringly powerful" – The Sunday Times
★★★★★ "This might be the most important documentary ever" – The Daily Mail
★★★★★ "Simply the best film of the year" – The Metro
★★★★★ "Like no movie seen before" – The Financial Times
★★★★★ "Unlike anything else out there" – Little White Lies
★★★★★ "Staggeringly original" – Time Out
★★★★★ "A devastating, surreal must-see" – The Evening Standard
★★★★★ "Shocking and surreal" – The Skinny
★★★★★ "A strange and startling documentary" – The Arts Desk
★★★★★ "Challenges the very limitations of what a documentary can be" – CineVue

"The Act of Killing", produced by Final Cut for Real, has already reached theatres in France and Holland, and release dates in the US are set for 19 July (New York) and 26 July (Los Angeles).

Four films on Indiewire's indie list

"The Act of Killing" is but one of four US releases this summer of Danish descent – all of which made it to Indiewire's list of indie "must-sees":

A Hijacking (21 June)
Dir. Tobias Lindholm
... a thriller with contemplative moments, the film teases out anticipation as the pirates must negotiate with officials in Copenhagen.

The Hunt (12 July)
Dir. Thomas Vinterberg
... a harrowing portrayal of a torn community and a man fighting for his dignity against impossible odds.

The Act of Killing (19 July)
Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer
... the most unsettling movie about mass killing since "Shoah."

Only God Forgives (19 July)
Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
... early screenings make it clear that Kristin Scott Thomas steals the show as Gosling's bloodthirsty gangster mother.

See Indiewire's full list including trailers

The Act of Killing

Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012

When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, Anwar and his friends were promoted from small-time gang¬sters who sold movie theatre tickets on the black market to death squad leaders. They helped the army kill more than one million alleged communists, ethnic Chinese, and intellectuals in less than a year. As the executioner for the most notorious death squad in his city, Anwar himself killed hundreds of people with his own hands.

Only God Forgives

Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013

Julian runs a Thai boxing club in Bangkok as a front for the family's drugs smuggling operation. When Julian's brother Billy is killed, their mother Crystal shows up in the city to bring the body of her firstborn home to America and to get Julian to avenge his dead brother.

The Hunt

Thomas Vinterberg, 2013

The 40-year-old divorced father, Lucas, is just about to be reunited with his son when he is accused of a crime he did not commit; and now a witch hunt starts in a small surburban town in Denmark. How long will he be able to endure it when his friends and his girlfriend also begins to doubt his innocence..

A Hijacking

Tobias Lindholm, 2012

The cargo ship MV Rozen is heading for harbour when it is hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. Amongst the men on board are the ship's cook Mikkel and the engineer Jan who, along with the rest of the seamen, are taken hostage in a cynical game of life and death. With the demand for a ransom of millions of dollars a psychological drama unfolds between the CEO of the shipping company and the Somali pirates.