Department for Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia
Asien-Afrika-InstitutLanguages and Cultures of Southeast Asia
Announcement: 03.12.2025 – Film Screening: "The Promise"
3 December 2025, 6:30 pm, by AAI Webmaster
Photo: Witfilm
We kindly invite you to this in-site film screening (original version with English subtitles; discussion in German and English) on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025, at 18:30–20:30 h (CET/MEZ).
Movie:
"The Promise" (director: Daan Veldhuizen, 2025; running time about 2 hours)
Introduction:
Paul Metsch (Peace Brigades International)
Moderator:
Marion Struck-Garbe (Department for Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia, UHH)
Date/Time:
December 3rd, 2025 (Wednesday), 18:30 – 20:30 (CET/MEZ)
Language:
orginal version with English subtitles; discussion in German and English
Place:
University of Hamburg
Asia-Africa-Institute (AAI)
Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Ostflügel ("East Wing"), room O-123
20146 Hamburg
Open to public! – No entrance fee!
About this film screening:
The Department for Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia, together with other organizers, is showing the captivating documentary film "The Promise" about West Papua, which has already been released in the Netherlands. These are impressive stories that describe how this distant country, unknown to many of us, was deceived and betrayed by its former colonial power, the Netherlands, how it was taken over by Indonesia, and how it continues to be oppressed and exploited to this day.
Sixty years after the events took place, "The Promise" shocked the Netherlands and sparked controversy about how to deal with its own colonial past. It is a film that gives us food for thought here, too.
Even here, very few people know about the former Dutch colony in West New Guinea. Let alone about all the colonial constraints that the film recounts with uniquely restored and colorized archive material: roads, dress codes, religion. Above all, however, in the early 1960s, the Netherlands made a promise of independence to the indigenous Papuans, which has not been fulfilled to this day. Instead, there was a violent takeover by Indonesia, supported by the US. Gold and oil played a significant role in this. A period of violence, displacement, and rapid change began. Many Papuans fled to the Netherlands at that time, where they still live today and tell how the world remains silent about all this.
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