Mother Dao, the Turtlelike

The film is made up of old archive footage on nitrate film abut the formerDtch East Indies, now Indonesia. No commentary has been added to the picturesapart from natural sounds and native music and poetry. The archive materialis from the collection of the Netherlands Film Museum. The pictures show theextensive economic exploitation, the thousands of coolies who were set towork, as well as disease, death and burial among ther natives, sacrifices madeto humour spirits, gods and ancestors, missionaries etc.While working on the film, the film-maker made an interesting discovery in thearchives. He found the original nitrate negatives of the film shot by IepOchse between 1924 and 1928 in the former Dutch East Indies. His discoverymade it possible to conserve this unique material.The title of the film is taken from the creation myth of the Niassers, theinhabitants of the island of Nias to the West of Sumatra.