It was my first year in primary school. Out of all my friends, I was the only one who had not watched that compulsory movie. It’s not necessary, my mother said. The second year I asked her again. She answered, it’s not necessary. The third year, I was a bit older, and I asked again, pressing for an answer. My mother still said it isn’t necessary. I got angry and demanded an explanation.
Then she told me a story, about my father. A story that made me cry at the time, although I did not know why. Maybe, maybe, maybe because I was sad of what happened to my father, what he experienced. Or maybe I was old enough to understand that we did not control our own fate. Not me, my father, not even my mother. That we could be separated at any time. Ratrikala Bhre Aditya #1965setiaphari #living1965
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Political prisoners in Indonesia were a varied bunch. Some were farmers, or blue-collar labourer who just happened to be in the wrong place at an unfortunate time, then somehow got arrested and exiled. Some were real politicians whose political party happened to be at the losing side, and so they just have the accept the consequences of being rice field worker. Some were heroic students who were sympathisers of the losing party I mentioned earlier. Some were super-bright intellectuals who, again, suddenly found themselves on the wrong side, then were given no option other than to endure being a farmer. Some are soldiers who picked the wrong commanders. Some soldiers were deliberately sneaked in to be ‘cockroaches’. Of all these people, some would go to the trouble of keeping a diary. This is a photograph of one of the records they create. Because books were scarce, they must fit two lines of writing into one row. And for efficiency, all lines must have aligned left and right. The contents vary - daily notes, research hypothesis on whatever’s accessible, song books, manual for building construction, poetry, love letters. What unified them was that they have passed censorship. This is also a photograph of a remarkable research material for screenplay I am currently developing. Hopefully the story will take form this coming year. Ratrikala Bhre Aditya #1965setiaphari #living1965 |
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