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SLAVE ISLAND

HARALD HOUSE - as PROD / FIN

Art - Culture - Development 2021

Young women and children are threatened with rites of Pasung: to be chained to a wooden block until the demons are driven out of them. Two filmmakers, Jimmy and Jeremy, explore the hidden paradise of Sumba, only to discover atrocities of present-day slavery.

Festivals
& Awards

FEST New Directors new films festival 2020

Best Pitch Trailer

- Year of production
- 2021
- Genres
- Art - Culture, Second film, Documentary
- Countries
- BELGIUM
- Languages
- INDONESIAN, ENGLISH
- Budget
- 0 - 0.3 M$
- Duration
- 52 mn
- Synopsis
- This is the culture of Marapu; an age-old religion based on a caste system that divides those born with royal blood as masters and the others as slaves. Those unlucky, the ‘Ata’ must serve their master, and in death, be buried with them. By exploring the moral landscape of the locals, the two filmmakers are looking for hope in a very dark place. At a local monastery run by Catholic nuns, hundreds of girls are taken in as victims of human trafficking, a consequence of the Marapu traditions that allows the sale of slaves abroad. One of the victims, Young Rina, was sold by her own parents and trafficked abroad to work as a maid in an abusive household in Malaysia. Now, eight years laters, the nuns bring her back to the village she came from, to meet her parents and start a process of healing. In the meantime, the filmmakers get in touch with John, a local trafficker who openly shares his methods of working - a testament to the normalization of the slave trade. He despises the traditional slave trade between families, but has no problem trafficking children abroad. He wants to take the filmmakers to the other side of the island, where he claims the local practices are even more brutal.
- Beginning of shooting
- Apr 01, 2021
- End of shooting
- Jun 01, 2021

SLAVE ISLAND

Festivals& Awards

Festivals
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