Solo, Solitude

In July 1996, riots break out in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. Wiji Thukul, an important critical and political poet, and a few other activists are designated as suspects and the police starts looking for them. Wiji has no choice but to leave his town, Solo, to escape to Borneo, 3,000 kilometers away. Now a fugitive, Wiji starts his exile in fear. What if he was recognized and arrested? On the road he is helped, protected and fed by activists who take him from house to house, from village to village away from the center of the repression. He soon moves in the home of a young couple, who helps him find a small job. Writing poems, short stories and changing identity slowly help him find a certain peace. But in his mind and heart remain his wife, Sipon, and their two children left behind in Solo. There, under constant surveillance and pressure from the police, his family tries to go on with their daily life. One day Wiji can’t take it anymore. He wants to go home. Never mind the danger and the lack of money. What is life if you can’t be with the ones you love?