Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Aceh

Right now, I'm sitting in my lounge room. I'm watching the tradgedy of the Acehenese people. Gen. Bambang was a leader of the indonesian army and more or less actively wiped out hundreds of people fighting for a free Aceh.

It's fucking saddening - I've just seen the story of how one of the journalist's friends has been tortured and murdered by security forces. We just saw the old man who supported GAM once again, the voice over telling of how he had his throat cut.

Only... AND HERE's THE FUCKING KICKER... I can't hear because people won't SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT THE OC.

You can see the people crying on television because their families have died.

BUT HEAVEN FORFEND THAT THE TALES OF THE OC SHOULD GO UNREPEATED.

Just as the credits kicked in, they left.

Fuck.

Here's SBS's promo material.

The Black Road

In the province of Aceh, journalist William Nessen gained the trust and friendship of General Bambang Darmono, the Indonesian commander of military operations, and patrolled with his military. He fell in love with Shadia Marhaban, a local ‘fixer,' who worked secretly for the independence movement. Days after Nessen's marriage to Shadia, the security forces kidnapped and killed his ‘best man,' an outspoken human rights activist. Nessen, the only journalist to report from the rebel zones, lived and filmed for months on the frontlines with GAM independence guerrillas. He was hunted by the military, imprisoned for 40 days and twice expelled from the country. Filmed over four years, The Black Road brings us directly to the battlefields and burnt-out villages of the province. We step into the lives and experience the deaths of Aceh's GAM guerrillas, its human rights activists and ordinary farmers. Acknowledging a hundred-year history of resistance to outside rule, the film focuses on the post-Suharto years of escalating fighting, martial law, and the conflict after the tsunami. (Commissioned by SBS Independent, in English, Indonesian and Acehnese, English subtitles) M (A,V) CC WS

and HERE's the outline of the OC

Plot Outline: A troubled youth becomes embroiled in the lives of a close-knit group of people in the wealthy, upper-class neighborhood of Newport Beach, Orange County, California. (more)