BEATRIZS WAR/ A GUERRA DA BEATRIZ

Timor Leste, 2013, 103 minutes, Colour.
Trim Tolentino
Directed by Luigi Acquisto, Bety Reis.

The first reason for congratulations is that this is the first feature film coming from East Timor, Timor Leste. It is a local production, directed by a local, Bety Reis, in collaboration with Australian director, Luigi Acquisto.

While older Australians still remember a lot of the television footage coming from the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975, the controversy over the deaths of Australian journalists, the occupation by Indonesia of the former Portuguese colony, younger audiences will not be so familiar. Beatriz’s War offers an excellent opportunity for learning about the events and appreciating the experiences of the people of Australia’s very near neighbour.

The action of the film takes place over a crucial 25 years, from the invasion to the vote for independence, 1999, and its immediate aftermath.

At the opening of the film, in 1975, Beatriz is a young girl, brought by her mother, because of the invasion of the danger, to a man who used to be a rival family leader, and asks for the betrothal of her daughter with his young son, Tomas. Beatriz is a strong-minded girl. Tomas is rather a gentle boy, easily bullied. But there is an attraction between the two. The parents ratify the union – but the local priest, Father Nicolau, cannot bless the union until they come to a marriageable age. Ultimately, they do, and Beatriz becomes pregnant.

The film is shot locally, capitalising on a range of locations, in the mountains, on the flatlands, by the sea. Audiences get a feel for this neighbouring country.

The occupation is more difficult for the women, who stay at home, while the men were able to go into the hills to join resistance movements. But that is not the fate of all the men, the occupying military, in a very grim sequence, round up the men in the village, get them to sing the anthem of the resistance and then mow them down. Tomas is not amongst those killed in this massacre. He has gone into the mountains.

The years pass, Beatriz grows older, works with Thomas’s sister – and grieves when their father comes to offer himself in exchange for his daughter. No news of Tomas.

In some ways, the women in the village get used to the presence of the soldiers, especially the commander who invaded initially and has stayed, a man of deep brutality, who decides to exploit the women and has force-married Thomas’s sister, Beatriz urging her to do this. The women make a decision that they will populate their village with children from the occupying forces, a decision which has consequences for the children, seen as mixed race, especially when fathers, like the commander, demand that they return to Indonesia after independence.

Again the years pass and, unexpectedly, Tomas returns. Film buffs will recognise some clues from The Return of Martin Guerre with Gerard Depardieu and its American version with Jodie Foster and Richard Gere, Somersby. The question is, is this really Tomas, or someone posing as Tomas. This gives some force to the final part of the film, Beatriz and her dealing with the return of her husband, the villagers relying on traditions to gauge the truth of the return or not, Thomas’s sister presiding over the issues.

Audiences might remember that in the mid-90s, Jose Ramos Horta, along with Bishop Carlos Belo SDB deadly, received the Nobel Peace Prize for their contribution to forming a just peace to the conflict. There is a Catholic priest in this film, Father Nicolau, sometimes in cassock, sometimes in local clothes, very supportive of the people, from his work with the young Beatriz and Tomas, to his stand against the invaders, his protest against the massacre by publicly reading out his list of the dead and his being deported to Portugal.

With the national background, the occupation, the massacres, the hardships of daily living, the resistance in the mountains, the focus of the film is Beatriz, played by Trim Tolentino, a strong woman who has had to live through, as have the people, a grim 25 year long experience, but also the extraordinary experience of voting for independence and achieving it.

(Robert Connolly’s 2008 film Balibo, dealing with the invasion, the role of Australian journalists, the action of Jose Ramos Horta and the people is worth seeing in connection with Beatriz’s War.)

1. The importance of having a film from Timor Leste and, Australian support? The contributions of artists and technicians from Timor Leste and Australia?

2. The film telling the story of the country from the invasion by Indonesia in 1975, throughout the occupation, to the vote for independence in 1999, indications of life in 2000 onwards? The long colonial period with the Portuguese, the invasion and the occupation, the cruelty, the massacres, oppression, resistance? 1999 with the vote on independence, the brutal leaving by the Indonesians, the aftermath, the resistance coming down from the mountains? Xnana Guzmao, Jose Ramos Horta and the leading of the country? The story for an Indonesian audience, an Australian audience, but especially for the Timorese themselves? World interest in this story – and the possibility at the end of the 20th century for freedom and independence?

3. The locations, the authentic places, jungle, the mountains, the sea, the villages?
pregnancy, giving birth, love? Thomas and his absence? The story of his return – and the adaptation of The Return of Martin Guerre of Somersby?

4. Beatriz and her voice over, the portrait of her as a little girl to middle age?

5. Her mother, the dress, seemingly for the first Communion, but for marriage? The mother bargaining with the traditional enemy, the King, for four cows? His guarantee of the metal given by Australia for his work during the war? Father Nicolau, is refusing to do the ceremony until they were of age?

6. The presence of the priest, Father Nicolau, cheering Tomas, funny story, but his refusing to do the ceremony until they were aged for childbearing?

7. The first night, the two in bed together, hearing the shooting, the invaders, the mother dying, people fleeing?

8. The 1970s, the occupation by the Indonesian military, cruelty, the possibilities for ceasefire, the tension with Tomas’s father, Tomas and his timidity, threatened, Beatriz giving birth?

9. 1983, the breaking of the ceasefire, the massacre, so many men killed, Tomas and his interrogation, torture, his refusing to give information? The men on the beach, asked to sing the resistance on, the captain ordering them shot? Tomas escaping, Beatrice searching among the corpses? Never believing that he died?

10. Beatriz, the birth, unable to give milk to the child, trying to find a mother who could, the first one failing, the second one succeeding, the separation, the captain, his choosing Beatriz and violating her?

11. The village of women, Teresa and her character, her love her brother, devotion to her father? The strong character? Her father coming and giving himself up so that she might be free, his being taken to the hill, refusing to dig the grave, his being shot? Beatriz and her tough stances, urging Teresa to be the captain’s wife, the threats on anyone who escaped, the reprisals, the women getting the tools, to build? The discussion about the future, with children, the soldiers, mixed race children, the number of pregnancies? The occupation going on, life in the village? The resistance in the hills?

12. Father Nicolau, visuals of his presence as a priest, with the children, his decision about the marriage, his presence with the Indonesians, supporting those who suffered, reading out his list and defying the Indonesians, his being deported to Portugal?

13. The captain, his cruelty during the occupation, the rapes? Attitude towards Beatriz? His marrying Teresa? The birth of the daughter? The symbol of tying the deer, with the stone – and its reappearing on the flats at the end, still exerting strength to pull the stone to be free?

14. 1999, voting, the alternatives, the vote for independence? The presence of the Australian troops?

15. The Indonesians leaving, vindictive, burning the village, killing people, the confrontation with Teresa, making her declare that her daughter was Indonesian, her father taking her?

16. The return of Tomas, the greeting, his claiming to be Beatriz’s husband? Teresa believing? The issue of the traditions, the spirits, whether he should be allowed in the house? Beatriz and her rejecting him, invoking the traditions? His relating to the boy, the scenes together, father-figure? Beatriz loving him
despite everything, his loving her, her pregnancy? The scene on the beach? The man denouncing him, giving his real name, the audience knowing the truth? The threats to the drunken man?

17. The decision to have a trial, the women listening? Teresa and her being the judge? The woman coming from the village, the denunciation, the fact that he was a traitor, working with the Indonesians, the murder of the religious and the nuns?

18. His going to prison, his real identity, Beatriz coming, wanting the ring back, the confusing experience?

19. The aftermath, in prison, Beatriz giving birth, and not wanting the child, giving it to Teresa, Teresa persuading her to take the baby, accusing it?

20. Storytelling as well as the recounting of Timorese history, the world audiences?