A Guerra da Beatriz

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Movie
Original title A Guerra da Beatriz
Country of production East Timor
original language Tetum
Publishing year 2013
length 98 minutes
Rod
Director Bety Reis
Luigi Acquisito
script Irim Tolentino
Luigi Acquisto
production Stella Zammataro
occupation

A Guerra da Beatriz ( German  The War of Beatriz ) is the first East Timorese feature film. It was released in 2013.

action

The film is based on the story of Martin Guerre in France in the 16th century and transports her to East Timor during the Indonesian occupation.

Beatriz and Tomas married in September 1975 in a small village in central Portuguese Timor . In December, Indonesian troops invade the country that had recently declared itself independent under the name of East Timor. Like many others, the young couple have to flee their village to the mountains. In 1979 they are caught by the Indonesians and relocated to the village of Kraras .

In 1983 Beatrice had a son. Shortly thereafter, the Kraras massacre takes place , in which the Indonesian soldiers want to murder all male residents in retaliation for the attack by the East Timorese resistance. The baby's life is also threatened. Tomas is captured by the soldiers and disappears. But Beatrice cannot find him later among the 200 dead.

In 1999 the Indonesian occupation ended. The United Nations took over the administration to give the country independence three years later. 16 years after his disappearance, Tomas returns to Beatriz. He had managed to flee into the mountains, where he joined the resistance. Beatrice realizes that her husband has changed a lot. He is more mature, wiser, more sociable, and more loving.

backgrounds

The film was shot in East Timor on a budget of $ 200,000. The money came from the filmmakers, sponsors and various government institutions, such as the president and prime minister or the ministries for tourism and culture. The original language is the national language Tetum , but the title is in Portuguese .

The main actress Irim Tolentino began her acting career with the first local theater company Bibi Bulak . She already played in the Australian film Balibo (2009) and various theater and television productions. José da Costa had roles in the Australian two-part television series Answered by Fire and in Balibo . Augusta , Eugenio and Doretea Soares are siblings, Sandra da Costa is her cousin. They all come from the theater company Criansas Unidas . Osme Gonsalves is a well-known musician who also played with Balibo and Bibi Bulak. Funu Lakan is a former commandant of the FALINTIL resistance movement and a soldier in the East Timorese Defense Forces . Some of the extras were played by widows in the Kraras massacre.

The film crew consisted of 30 East Timorese and four Australians. The East Timorese Defense Forces provided equipment, weapons and uniforms, as well as some actors. This is how the role of the popular resistance fighter José dos Anjos is portrayed by Tenente-Coronel Funu Lakan.

On September 17, 2013, the premiere of A Guerra da Beatriz took place in the state capital Dili , where it was shown in the cinema for five weeks. Within a month, the film was shown nationwide in numerous open-air screenings in front of 30,000 spectators, as there is only a real cinema in Dili. A total of 100,000 East Timorese saw the film.

Festivals

Presentation of the Golden Peacock to Bety Reis and Luigi Acquisito

The film participated in the Adelaide International Film Festival and International Film Festival of India , where it won the Golden Peacock for Best Picture .

Participation in the Festival de Cinéma de Douarnenez in France, which dealt with Indonesia, East Timor and West Papua in 2014 , was canceled after co-director Bety Reis was refused a visa by the French embassy in Jakarta . Financial aid for part of the film crew's trip to France was also canceled. According to the festival director Yann Stéphant, the French Foreign Ministry cut all support for guests from Indonesia and East Timor because the guests included West Papua activist Benny Wenda , who lives in the UK . Stéphant suspected that they didn't want to upset Indonesia.

Reviews

Windu Jusuf of The Jakarta Post sees parallels between A Guerra da Beatriz and the first Algerian feature film, Battle of Algiers from 1965. There are similarities not only in the plot, both scripts are written by former guerrillas, in Algerian films the politically left-wing leader was the leader Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo and Australian co-director Bety Reis are said to have this political orientation and both films were massively promoted by the governments of the young states. However, the East Timorese film is less action-packed. Women are portrayed here as the "ultimate victims of occupation and their long-term trauma". Jusuf points out that Indonesia itself had a colonial history and emphasizes the country's anti-colonial stance, despite which the country itself became a colonial power in East Timor. The film shows the worst side of Indonesia's armed forces , that of a “mass murder company whose invasion of Timor was backed and supported by the West, especially the US and Australia.” Indonesia would still struggle with its past. The Australian film Balibo from 2009 about the Balibo Five was still prevented from being shown at a festival. A Guerra da Beatriz was shown twice in Jakarta in front of a few dozen people without protests. Finally, Jusuf asks what it means for a French to see the Battle of Algiers or for an American in the Season of the Whirlwind ( Mùa gió chướng ) or for a Dutchman Darah dan Doa . Before Timo's invasion, the Indonesians, as a former colony, asked this question. Now they would have the privilege of asking: "What does it mean to be an Indonesian after seeing A Guerra da Beatriz ?"

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Sydney Morning Herald: Fresh start for East Timor's film scene , October 2, 2013 , accessed October 6, 2013
  2. ↑ a b The Film Catalog: Beatriz's War
  3. ↑ A Guerra da Beatriz: Story , accessed on October 6, 2013
  4. ↑ a b c The Jakarta Post :: 'Beatriz's War': Timor Leste's first feature film , December 21, 2014 , accessed December 22, 2014.
  5. ^ A Guerra da Beatriz: The Cast , accessed October 6, 2013
  6. ^ The Adelaide Film Festival: Beatriz's War . Archived from the original on November 3, 2013 ; Retrieved October 6, 2013 .
  7. ^ A Guerra da Beatriz: The Team , accessed October 6, 2013
  8. ↑ The Jakarta Post: Beatriz's War and us , December 21, 2014 , accessed December 22, 2014.