Aceh, after

Aceh, After is a film about “regasification” in the region of Lhokseumawe, Aceh, a once fruitful site of extraction of natural gas subsequently planned to become a Special Economic Zone. It offers an immersion in a scenario where the extractive economy of gas is linked to global vision of development and prosperity as well as to present and past national politics of exploitation of resources and land grabbing.
Two women and their families embody such scenario. They enact their lives as workers in the low-technology industries which stay untouched by the grand industrial plans. Through self-scripted dialogues, they lead through their problems and their pride. They speak as mothers, sisters and daughters of drug dealers, in and out of jail, and mix the present violence of drugs with past experience of fear and abuse during the civil conflict. They speak but evoke the fear to talk that extends the shadow of past dictatorship onto contemporary issues of use and abuse of social media. At the same time, they trust the regenerating power of child bearing: once one has a child, one finds a way, so says Lela. And they want to talk.
The film is both domestic and industrial, intimate and choral. Two small children carry the imprint of a violent past and the trust of a dreamed future.