During a trip to Indonesia, dancer Cheroney Pelupessy and her reticent mother together find a way to come to terms with the latter’s suppressed past, marked by migration, domestic violence and intergenerational trauma.
For years, documentary filmmaker Sven Peetoom has been exposing the consequences of suppressing the Dutch colonial history in Indonesia. In this short documentary, he follows dancer Cheroney Pelupessy when she and her mother return to Jakarta, the place where Cheroney’s mother grew up, but always remained scrupulously quiet about. During their trip, they jointly try to come to terms with her traumatic past and thus tighten their bond. What starts as a quest for a disregarded family history unfolds into a poignant portrait of domestic violence, intergenerational trauma and the hope for connection.
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