Pássabe is a village in the Oecussi enclave of Timor-Leste, right next to the border of Indonesia/West Timor. Passabe is also a film i did not know that existed until just recently, though it’s existed since 2005. It’s a film about the aftermaths of the horrible events that happened after the 1999 referendum and it’s a film about the reconciliation process. It’s also a film that got banned from the Jakarta film festival in 2006.

I do not know if it’s because i’ve been in Timor-Leste, but watching the trailer gave me goosbumps and made the hair on my arms and neck wave like weeds in the wind…

There’s also an interview with the film makers on their native Radio Singapore, and a review/blog entry on New Leaf, and a presentation on the Melbourne Film Festival 2006 pages, where the movie was shown.

Filmmaker Lynn Lee: (in another quote)

It was sometime in March 2004. We were sitting in our room at our guest house in Dili, wondering if we should just pack up and go home, or stay in Timor, keep filming and exhaust all our savings. We’d been shooting for a two months and knew we’d found an incredible story. But no one - not a single broadcaster we approached in Singapore - was interested in funding us. We were down to our last 500 dollars. We could go home and find decent jobs or slog on, trust our instincts, and face the prospect of going broke. It was a tough call. But we chose to stay. And that was when we realized that we didn’t have to conform to any broadcaster’s standards. We didn’t have to make a “traditional” documentary. We didn’t have a commissioning editor to answer to; no deadlines to meet. We could let the story tell itself, allow things to play out.