Which Way to the War?

“Which Way to the War” offers a window into the complex and sometimes mystifying nature of conflicts. It documents a poignant story of discord that should have ended the first night it erupted – but one that turned instead into a deadly struggle for more than a decade.

The Indonesian district of Poso had seemed utterly normal, with daily life revolving around the routines of family, community, and work. Antagonisms ran deep, however, and a dispute that began with simple farm tools escalated into attacks with AK-47s. When it was all over, scores had been killed, including three school girls beheaded while walking to school.

I came to produce this film by accident. I first visited Poso on the Indonesian isle of Sulawesi for an entirely different purpose. I had thought it would make an ideal venue for exploring how rural Indonesians look upon Americans and our role in the world.

Within hours of arrival, however, I realized that a far more compelling story lay in the wrenching conflict that had torn apart an otherwise seemingly typical Indonesian district. The Poso District was home to some 200,000 residents and served as the main port and transportation hub for the region. But the larger area was still in the backwaters of national development. Most farmers were still without ATMs or even mobile phones as they worked the rice fields that their ancestors had for generations.

My film looks beneath what had first appeared to be a religious conflict between Protestants and Muslims in a region where religious identity is close to tribal. What I found was a great divide between those who controlled local resources and those who did not. Secular struggles over land, power, and pride were the real drivers. Reclaiming control of lost land and avenging the death of lost relatives had become animating forces. And then, religious radicals within and Islamic extremists from without seized upon the simmering divisions to add their own high-octant fuel to the fire.

As film director, I have sought to feature the people who lived through the searing conflict and let them tell their own story. I initially consulted every expert on the Poso events that I could locate, but I soon concluded that the experience would be best described by those who had lived through it. Others helped as well, including local activists and journalists who worked with the filming at some risk to themselves. The Poso tensions are still not entirely resolved.

I conducted the filming with just a single camera and a modest budget, all that I could afford at the time. But it was probably the only way to complete the production. Poso residents remained extremely suspicious of outside reporters, local authorities prohibited media without official sanction, and religious zealots were still hostile to any Americans. Despite the unpromising context, I found myself welcomed by all sides. Officials, activists, victims, and perpetrators talked openly on camera in ways they had not to major media in the past.

Everything proved challenging in creating the film, but perhaps none more so than balancing the full story of what happened in Poso against the anxieties that still pervade the area. Film sequences showing the violence were carefully selected to protect the dignity of the victims, and the film more broadly seeks to show that Muslims and Christians alike were victims of the conflict.

Above all, “Which Way to the War” is intended to throw light on how economic and power struggles can sometimes degenerate into communal and religious violence on an appalling scale – and how local leaders can work to overcome it.