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No way home: Documentary ‘Eksil’ sheds light on those exiled in 1965
These students eventually became stateless, wandering around aimlessly and seeking other countries for better asylum.
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Too late: Herutjahio (standing) and Nurkasih, children of an Indonesian exile Sardjio Mintardjo, visit their father’s grave in Leiden, the Netherlands. Mintardjo passed away before filming for the documentary 'Eksil’ (The Exile) started. (Courtesy of Lola Amaria Production/-)
“Our graves are everywhere,” says an elderly man on screen. “Scattered everywhere across the world.”
The man is one of the 10 exiles interviewed in the 2022 documentary Eksil (The Exile), directed and produced by filmmaker Lola Amaria. They were students, encouraged by the country’s founding father then president Sukarno to seek scholarships abroad, many in Communist countries, and help build Indonesia afterward.
But following the Sept. 30 Movement in 1965, known by its politically laden abbreviation G30S/PKI, they could not return home for decades. Eventually, their study countries became their homes.
“I didn’t think our exile would last so long,” Hartoni Ubes, who resides in the Czech Republic, says in the documentary.
Hartoni was 22 years old when the G30S/PKI incident happened. Like many scholarship awardees at the time, he was stuck abroad as the government, with Lt. Gen. Soeharto leading the troops, went on a bloody clampdown on communists from 1965 to 1966. At least half a million people were killed in the massacre and millions of others imprisoned without trial.
Students like Hartoni, who listened to the news from their universities across Europe and Asia, initially stayed put and avoided danger back home. But later, their political views were also put under scrutiny.
“The Indonesian Embassy in Moscow summoned us twice,” another exile I Gede Arka says in the film. The first time was to have them sign a statement condemning the assassination of the generals in G30S/PKI, which the students signed.
