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espite facing opposition from a number of mass organizations, the organizer of the Purbalingga Film Festival 2016 has decided to continue screening Pulau Buru Tanah Air Beta at the Main Hall of the Kencana Hotel on Friday. The organizer claimed that the proper permit had been obtained from the police.

“I have been terrorized by a number of mass organizations demanding that we stop the planned screening of Pulau Buru, but I don’t care [...} What is their right to forbid us?” Bowo Leksono, the film festival director, said on Friday.

“This year is the 10th year of the festival. We think that students need to know the country’s history through the screening of the movie,” he added.

The film tells the story of a young woman named Ken Setiawan who accompanies her father and a friend on a pilgrimage to Buru Island, where they had previously been held captive for years because of their connections with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). The PKI has been declared an illegal political party.Besides screening Pulau Buru, the festival had also put on other short films and documentaries by students from Purbalingga, Cilacap, Banjarnegara and Banyumas, all in Central Java.

Chief of the Purbalingga Police, Adj. Sr. Comr. Heru Purnomo, said he would mediate with anyone opposing the screening of Pulau Buru. “If there are people against the movie, they could hold a dialogue with the organizer. We [the police] do not deal with its content. That’s the business of the film community,” he said.