This movie was shown each year on Indonesian TV to perform the national trauma of the incidents of 1965 in Java, Bali and elsewhere in Indonesia. It is a propaganda movie of the New Order of the Indonesian military dictator Soeharto whose rule was established in the aftermath of the mass killings. The movie is filled with lies ignoring historical facts. There was no conspiratorial meeting of the leaders of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) right before the kidnapping and killing of six high generals of the Indonesian army. When the dead bodies of the generals had been found a few days later, no signs of torture at all was reported by the doctors and experts involved in the case. This movie had only the intention to justify Soeharto's military regime whose violations of human rights are well-known. That Soeharto's most favorite military historian Nugroho Notosusanto was involved in writing the screenplay is hardly surprising, but to find such highly rated Indonesian intellectuals as Arifin C. Noer (screenplay, was leading in Indonesian theatre in the 1970s) or Umar Kayam (played Sukarno, well-known sociologist and novelist) gives one quite some thoughts on their other artistic and literary works.
