A prisoner of conscience sends filmmakers to finish his forbidden journey through colonial ghosts.
Road movie-style documentary about the Great Post Road (De Groote Postweg/Jalan Raya Pos). Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925), one of the most important Indonesian authors of recent decades, wrote an essay about the Great Post Road at the request of director Bernie IJdis. This thousand-kilometer road across Java was built at the beginning of the last century under the leadership of the Dutchman Daendels and cost the lives of thousands of Indonesian forced laborers. Because Toer, as a former political prisoner, is restricted in his freedom of movement, the filmmakers act as his eyes and ears during a trip along the Post Road. During the journey, parallels between Indonesia in the past and present slowly unfold. In addition, as the film progresses, the grimness of Toer's situation and the situation in his country becomes palpable.
Direction
IJdis lets landscape speak where Toer cannot.
Writing
Toer's essay haunts every kilometer like a ghost co-director.
Director
Bernie IJdis
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Daendels' road was originally built in 1808 to speed military response against British invasion; it became the spine of Dutch extraction and later Indonesian nationhood.
Toer wrote this essay while under city arrest in Jakarta, banned from publishing—making the Post Road itself a metaphor for his own restricted movement.
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