His return became the starting point for After Multatuli Left, a documentary directed by Yogi D. Sumule, and Lebak, Kota Multatuli: Terjebak antara Feodalisme Lokal dan Kolonialisme Belanda (Lebak, the City of Multatuli: Trapped Between Local Feudalism and Dutch Colonialism), a book by Onderdenwijngaard examining social and cultural changes in Lebak and how Multatuli’s ideas have resonated across generations.

Eduard Douwes Dekker, better known by his pen name Multatuli, was a Dutch colonial official who spent several months as assistant resident of Lebak in the 1850s. After clashing with the colonial administration over its treatment of indigenous people, he resigned and later wrote Max Havelaar, a novel that exposed oppression and corruption under the Cultivation System in the Dutch East Indie

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The film and book were presented at Erasmus Huis in Jakarta at a recent screening, book launch and discussion featuring Onderdenwijngaard and historian Andi Achdian.

Onderdenwijngaard first visited Badur in 1987, when he filmed the daily lives of its residents. In 2019, he returned to find some familiar faces and see how their lives had changed.

Rasif, one of the people featured in the film, had once lived in a traditional wooden house. After years of hard work, he was able to build a brick house, a modest but tangible sign of economic improvement, Onderdenwijngaard said during the discussion.

But the improvement was uneven.

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