Intercultural Meaning Construction in The Act of Killing: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis

Documentary films serve as complex sites of intercultural meaning construction, particularly those addressing mass violence such as The Act of Killing (2012), which features perpetrators of Indonesia's 1965 mass killings reenacting their crimes. This study aims to analyze how intercultural meanings emerge through multimodal discourse in the film. Employing a qualitative design with multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), the population comprises the full 117-minute film, with a purposive sample of 8-10 key scenes featuring reenactment, performative narration, and ideological positioning. Instruments include the film itself, analyzed via verbal transcription, visual annotation, and iterative multimodal interpretation triangulated with intercultural theory. Findings reveal reenactment as a discursive practice normalizing violence via evaluative language, exaggerated visuals, and embodied performance, resulting in divergent local-global interpretations that reveal power relations. In conclusion, the film mediates historical narratives multimodally, advancing intercultural communication scholarship.