PÖFF: Slave Island

Born of a collaboration between Belgium, Estonia, Italy, and Taiwan, this cinematic documentary is both a portrait of Indonesia’s Sumba and a mirror to humanity’s darkest hierarchies. On this remote island, time seems suspended between myth and reality. Here, slavery is not a relic of the past but a living tradition, bound to ancestral rites and passed through generations. Through the gaze of local activist Jeremy Kewuan, we encounter a world where the sudden disappearance of an eight-year-old enslaved girl casts a haunting shadow. Her fate seems inseparable from the island’s most terrifying belief: that slaves must follow their masters into death, buried alive beside them. The camera moves through vast skies, sacred rituals, and intimate silences, contrasting the island’s natural beauty with the cruelty concealed within its customs. As Jeremy risks his life to give voice to the silenced, his journey confronts us with an urgent question: what does freedom cost when tradition resists?