In 1998, Indonesia was deep in crisis. With the country reeling from soaring inflation, mass unemployment and mounting unrest, tensions erupted into protests and riots that brought an end to the three-decade rule of the dictator Suharto. Ethnic Chinese communities, long scapegoated as economic elites, were targeted in violent attacks, including looting, arson and killings. Sexual violence also occurred, mostly against women from these communities. However, despite an official independent report documenting at least 90 cases of sexual violence, members of the Indonesian government – many still connected to the Suharto era – continue to dismiss these cases as ‘rumours’.
In Hotline 1998, the Indonesian filmmaker Andrea Suwito revisits this painful chapter in her country’s history. The film centres on the memories of volunteers who staffed a hotline for survivors of sexual violence during the riots, alongside testimony from the humanitarian worker Sandyawan Sumardi, who helped document the violence. Sensitively told yet unflinchingly honest, Hotline 1998 is a powerful act of remembrance and a call to bear witness to a tragedy that’s long been ignored and denied.
