The Stone That Remembers

This film tells the journey of the Durga statue from Singosari area, which was forcibly removed by the Dutch colonials to become a garden statue and antique collection, until it managed to return to Indonesia and was reborn as a woman. The film parallels the forced movement of this artefact with how women have been subjected to alike forces throughout history. Narrated through body performance and intertitle, this dance film appropriates the visual language of monochromatic silent movies. Portrayals about Indonesia during the arrival of cinema technology are in the colonial standard; the people, landscape and customs are either exoticized or subject to the colonial idea of progress. The Stone That Remembers (2025) is a platform where the central entity has the agency to speak for herself.

This film is a part of Beyond Provenance, a transnational initiative that explores how film and collaboration can reassess narratives around restitution of Indonesian cultural objects by the government of the Netherlands.

The film screening will be followed by a DOC Talk session.