SHADOW PLAY looks at how Western powers manipulated key figures in Indonesia to keep Southeast Asia from falling into communist hands. At the heart of the story is Achmad Sukarno, the dynamic figure who led the Dutch East Indies to independence.

Sukarno's courting of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) rankled Western powers. With the establishment of the British state of Malaysia on Indonesia's border and the escalation of the U.S. military campaign in Vietnam, Indonesia and the West became increasingly polarized.

Then, on September 30, junior army officers supposedly under control of the PKI killed the generals. Twenty-four hours later, General Suharto put down the 'coup.' In the weeks that followed, Suharto's powers grew, leading to a nationwide purge and mass arrests in Jakarta of anyone with even tenuous ties to the PKI. In the countryside tens of thousands of people were tortured, shot, and buried in mass graves. Six months after the murder of the generals, with hundreds of thousands of Communists and their alleged supporters dead, General Suharto deposed President Sukarno and began a dictatorship that would last until 1998.

Looking back on that pivotal year, SHADOW PLAY examines how British propaganda specialists worked with General Suharto to whip up anti-Communist sentiment and solidify the army's position as heroes. It also reviews newly released communiqués from U.S. and Australian ambassadors. These documents reveal that Western powers allowed Suharto to carry out mass murders so that the Indonesian domino would fall on the Western side of the Cold War divide.

Through recently declassified documents, interviews with newly liberated Indonesians, and discussions with officials, journalists, and survivors of prison and torture, SHADOW PLAY offers a startling new interpretation of the events that shaped modern Indonesian history and changed the destiny of Southeast Asia.

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Select Accolades

• 2003 Association for Asian Studies Conference Film Festival
• 2001 Amsterdam International Documentary Festival