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About RAI Film
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Ethnographic Film Catalogue
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Film Festival 2025
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RAI FILM
Login
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About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Menu
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Films
found one film
Region
“South-East Asia”
x
Keywords
“Land Rights”
x
Country of production
“United Kingdom”
x
Year of production
“1974”
x
films with a digital version
1
Region
South-East Asia
1
x
Country
Indonesia
1
Keywords
Collective / Community identity
1
Land Rights
1
x
Social Change
1
Directors
Sheppard, John
1
Series
Disappearing World Series
1
Country of production
United Kingdom
1
x
Year of production
1974
1
x
Film
The Sakuddei
1974
52
‘
Directed by
John Sheppard
.
The Sakuddei are a small and ethnically separate community living on the island of Siberut off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. Their distinctive way of life and elaborate religious ceremonies, centred on the umah (ceremonial house) are under threat from the Indonesian government which wishes to ‘civilise’ the Sakuddei. These people are also threatened by a timber company from the Philippines which has been granted a logging concession in the Sakuddei’s territory. The first part of the film contains strikingly photographed scenes of ritual life in the umah, while in the second part there is an interview with a representative of the government who wants to send the Sakuddei children to school in a government village on the coast. The adults fear that the children will lose touch with their own customs and identity if placed in such an institution. Their concern forms part of a moving and dramatic film which explores the contrast between the Sakuddei’s way of life and the various pressures of modern Indonesian society on them: Islam, money, police, administrators and the lumber companies. B.E. Ward, 1975. Review of the film. RAIN, 8, pp. 10–11.
South-East Asia
Collective / Community identity
Social Change
Land Rights