The Clearing
Sabine Groenewegen
2026
Netherlands, Indonesia
88’
In the early 20th century, a Javanese girl is lured aboard a ship to Sumatra under the pretence of a better life. Upon arrival, she soon understands she is trapped in the terror of ‘white suits’ in a Dutch colonial rubber plantation. The primordial rainforest gives way to rubber trees. The manual labour of migrant workers turns the sticky liquid into profit. The white suits rule like slave owners and disappear girls into their big houses. With no way of escaping, seeds of resistance develop. A hundred years later, a meditative forensic investigation navigates between ghosts and established narratives.