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More about the film

Between 1975 and 1999, the East Timorese people sustained a powerful and ultimately successful resistance to the Indonesians who had brutally occupied their small country. In the period since independence, many of the resistance fighters have been recognised and to some extent compensated for their contribution to freedom..

Women fought actively alongside men and were key to the operations of the clandestine movement. They also were survivors and unrecognised actors as victims of campaigns of sustained rape. In their country, these women, many of whom bore children and were often shunned within their communities, are now trying to gain recognition and compensation.

BMETS have built and maintained a 20-year connection and commitment to women and children in Timor-Leste. In the last 10 years, BMETS have supported the women in Mauchiga who are shown in the film. Mauchiga was one of the areas where the women that were systematically and repeatedly raped in an attempt by the Indonesian army to lure the resistance forces, the Timorese Infantil, from their places of hiding on nearby Kablaki Mountain.

BMETS have worked alongside AcBit, sharing responsibility for the support of this group of women. While AcBit have focussed on trauma counselling and psycho-social support as well as advocacy for reparations, BMETS have prioritised assisting with building a women’s centre where the women meet and attend training as well as supporting building their economic capacity.

The film provides a vivid and compelling picture of the horrific situation of many women in Timor-Leste It also clarifies why women in the Blue Mountains might want to step forward to assist their sisters in neighbouring Timor-Leste.

*Galuh Wandita began working alongside East Timorese activists in the 1990s during the dark days of the Indonesian occupation. In 1997, together with East Timorese activists, she was a founding member of Fokupers, Timor-Leste’s first organizations dedicated to addressing violence against women. During the 1999 referendum violence, she worked on with civil society groups to respond to the humanitarian crisis. She later joined the United Nations human rights mission in Timor-Leste. From 2002 to 2005, Galuh served as Deputy Director of Timor-Leste’s truth commission, the Comissão de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliação (CAVR), helping lead district-based truth-seeking and victim support processes, and contributing to the landmark Chega! report. Through AJAR and other initiatives, she later continued working with survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, families of the disappeared, and Timorese children separated during the occupation. As part of the Working Group on the Stolen Children, she contributed to efforts to find more than 200 survivors, and have so far reunited more than 100 with their Timorese families. She co-founded Associacaon Chega Ba Ita (ACbit) with Manuela Leong Pereira and others, and is an advisor with Centro Nacional Chega (CNC.) She is a recent recipient of a 2026 Order of Timor.

Contact Mary Waterford on for more information | 0499397977 | email: marywaterford2@gmail.com