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An Oscar nomination confers certain privileges — red carpet receptions, better future projects — but political protection is not among them.

Joshua Oppenheimer, the director of the nominated feature documentary “The Act of Killing,” which examines and dramatizes death squads in Indonesia, would not feel safe returning to that country, he said in an interview with the BBC this weekend.

“The film is, in a way, my love letter to Indonesia,” he said, shortly before he won the Bafta, the British equivalent of the Oscar, for best documentary on Sunday. “At the same time, one of the saddest things for me about releasing the film is that I can’t safely go back now.”

As he has throughout the season, in his acceptance speech Mr. Oppenheimer, who was born in Texas but is based in Europe, paid tribute to his anonymous Indonesian collaborators, who could not reveal themselves for fear of reprisals at home. The Indonesian government has fired back at Mr. Oppenheimer, particularly in the wake of his Oscar nomination, for portraying the country as “a cruel and lawless nation.”

In The Jakarta Globe, Teuku Faizasyah, a presidential spokesman for foreign affairs, is quoted as saying: “The film portrayed Indonesia as backwards, as in the 1960s. That is not appropriate, not fitting.”

Indonesia, he added, “has gone through a reformation. Many things have changed. One’s perception should not be so heavily influenced by just that one film.”

One Indonesian national who is celebrating the Oscar nomination is Anwar Congo, a former death squad leader who is shown in the film re-enacting how he killed hundreds or perhaps thousands of people in the style of his favorite cinematic villains. As a movie fan, Mr. Oppenheimer said, Mr. Congo “understands the significance” of the Oscars.