Flemish producer Kristian Van der Heyden and co-director Jimmy Hendrickx updated BDE on the status of their project about the very real and current spectre of human slavery. The makers are looking to complete the film by the end of 2023 ahead of Q2/3 festival roll-out in 2024.
“This is not about history. It is about an island in Indonesia where an overlooked traditional culture has kept alive this element of slavery for centuries until today,” Van der Heyden previously told BDE.
The documentary synopsis reads how Jeremy Kewuan, an activist for over a decade, faces the invisible power of ideology and faith as he combats a tradition of present-day slavery on a remote Indonesian island.
When a young girl who was sold into slavery finds refuge in a local shelter for child victims run by a nun, Jeremy decides to make a documentary on human trafficking. As he delves deeper into the island’s slave culture, he discovers the shocking reality of child slavery in the back house of the nun’s brother.
Jeremy begins to follow the lives of the three slave children. However, when one of the children suddenly disappears, Jeremy feels responsible, blaming himself for not taking the right actions. Despite this setback, Jeremy’s activities inspire the former slaves of the village, and he embarks with them on a quest to find the missing child and confront the slave holder.
As tensions rise, Jeremy finds himself in the middle of the conflict, aiming to capture the sparks of change and compassion in the hearts and minds of the locals. The film sheds light on the devastating impact of slavery on the island and the need for lasting change and hope for a better life for its inhabitants.
“After four years of shooting, our story has come to an end with a heavy heart,” co-director Hendrickx told Business Doc Europe at CONNEXT 2023. “There is so much more to tell and I learned a lot from Jeremy about being an activist… I hope he has the courage to never stop the fight.”
In the film, directors Hendrickx from Belgium and Kewuan from Flores in Indonesia make contact with victims and enablers to better understand the moral landscape that justifies this torture and abuse. “It is through Jeremy that we have unique access to these stories that we want to tell, and it also gives us insight into a life of an activist who is fighting for the women and children that suffer the most from this tradition,” explained Van der Heyden.
The Belgium/France/Estonia/Taiwan project started quite by chance, the producer told BDE when he was first pitching the project in October 2021. Co-director Jimmy Hendrickx, who lives ‘part-time’ in Jakarta needed a break and decided to go to Sumba island as he heard it was very beautiful, a place he could practice his photography.
“But the moment he arrived on the island, he got into a car with these nuns, and Rina, the victim of slavery, was sitting in the back of the car. So that’s actually the very first footage he shot. He was [shocked] that this girl was coming back from slavery in Malaysia,” said Van der Heyden. “He just stumbled into this story. So he reached out to me and said ‘look at this footage, I met these nuns and they’re dealing with local slavery, there’s something going on on this island we should investigate.’ And so as soon as I saw the footage, I was like, okay, clearly this is our next film.”
Van der Heyden further commented to BDE on the project: “Slavery is despicable, yet the objective is to offer a multifaceted view…A film that reflects on the universal mechanisms in which there are rulers and victims, in which religion is both a danger and a solution whilst our own moral judgement is an endless project under construction.”
At CONNEXT 2022 Van der Heyden explained that the production had compiled 200 hours of research footage with testimonies from slave owners, from forced brides, nuns on the island as well as from the slaves themselves, some of whom were as young as eight years old.
“The actual film will be from the perspective of Jeremy Kewuan…with his narration as a main character Indonesia in a sort of diary style,” the producer continued. “The style of the film is very immersive. We follow both directors as they journey through the island and make all these discoveries. But we combine that with moments of cinematic contemplation.”
Are there dangers to the filmmakers as they expose the aspect of slavery on the island? Surprisingly few, Van der Heyden answered, which is an indication of exactly how endemic and deep-rooted the practice is. “On the last shoot, we had to make sure that there were people around his [Jeremy’s] house all the time because one of the slave owners began to understand the intentions of our film. But, in general, it’s overlooked. So we don’t have any issues with the government, [although] officially it’s not allowed to do press on the island.”
Van der Heyden confirmed to BDE that in the coming months he will give details of an impact campaign designed to help combat the vile practice that his film so effectively exposes.
