Fajar Suharno was a theater maestro from the 80’s to the 90’s. He was imprisoned because his theater activities were considered against the New Order government. At its peak, he made a show entitled Geger Uwong Ngoyak Macan about the events of crushing people who were considered thugs/criminals (Petrus). The show was held just the day before the massacre took place. This film e...
A busy Nanny School in Indramayu (West Java) is preparing hundreds of women each year for life as domestic workers abroad. Help is on the way explores the various characters that undertake the required training and development, following them from the village to the school, into Jakarta and eventually working abroad in Taiwan. We also explore the role of the agents, teachers a...
Alima worked for a Dutch family as their babu—nanny—in the former Dutch East Indies. In voice-over, we hear the story of how she came to the family to care for their baby and accompanied them for a short stay in the Netherlands. Upon her return, she lived through Japanese occupation (during which the Dutch family was put in internment camps) and the battle for Indonesia’s indep...
In Indonesia, in the Padang district, an open landfill site borders the forest. A landscape of precipitous terrain, with its crest lines and its chasms, serves as a pasture for several hundred cows. Amidst the dance of the diggers and trucks discharging their loads onto the slopes of a mountain of rubbish, a herd makes its way through the chaos, in search of something to graze....
Bali is world famous as a tourist paradise but for some Balinese women the reality is more troubling. Approximately 10% of Balinese families are polygamous, and men in these unions often take multiple brides without their spouse's consent. Filmed over the course of seven years, Bitter Honey offers the first in-depth exploration of these family's lives. Women from three polygamo...