Lisabona Rahman, Jakarta – A group of elementary schoolchildren carefully take notes as a guide takes them around Lubang Buaya (Crocodile's lair), a monument for the seven army officers killed in a failed coup presumably carried out by the Communist Party (PKI) in 1965.

A white-haired man stands to the side, smiling subtly as he observes the tour. He is Balinese poet, writer and acupuncturist Putu Oka Sukanta, who was once a political prisoner accused of being a communist.

Putu Oka's visit to Lubang Buaya is recorded on Menyemai Terang dalam Kelam (Sowing Light Within the Darkness), a documentary by filmmaker IGP Wiranegara, a lecturer at the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) who is also a survivor of the 1965 tragedy.

The Sept. 30, 1965 murders of the army officers triggered a nationwide wave of persecution against communists and their sympathizers. Many people, particularly intellectuals and artists who did not toe the line of government rhetoric, and their families innocent of such accusations were also swept up in the incarcerations and disappearances that followed.

While hundreds of thousands of "communists" are believed to have been killed, no truth and reconciliation investigation has been opened into the incident.

"My father was summoned by the civil militia at midnight sometime in 1966. He was forced to seek refuge in a neighbor's house," he recalls of the dreadful years. Since then, Wiranegara and his family have endured decades of prejudice from both relatives and friends.

"I came to know Putu Oka from a friend in IKJ, who is his acupuncture patient. I introduced myself and told him what had happened to my family, and he encouraged me to make a documentary about survivors and reconciliation," Wiranegara said.

Wiranegara began making documentary films when he enrolled at the IKJ. His first film is about the Sultan of Solo, Pakubuwana XII, and reveals the king's solitude and powerlessness, especially following Indonesian independence. PB XII Berjuang untuk Sebuah Eksistensi (PB XII's Struggle to Exist) earned him the Citra award for Best Documentary Film at the 2005 Indonesian Film Festival.

"I am unconsciously drawn to historical topics. Initially, because I know the Sultan personally, and then I started to hear many stories about his life. His environment also connected me to a lot of important people in Indonesia's history and then of course, my personal background also pulled me closer to this subject," Wiranegara explained.

The research he conducted for Menyemai Terang dalam Kelam sometimes brought him face to face with the hidden sides of people he previously knew. He was very surprised to see how the 1965 tragedy and its consequences forced people to hide a part of their histories.

Wiranegara believes that the experiences his family and other survivors endured must be told for the sake of coping with a tragic era in modern Indonesian history.

"I think most survivors like me don't want revenge against the New Order government. What we want is to make peace with the past and the kind of acceptance (recognition) that comes along with the correction of negative labels that were imposed on us," he said.

The plea for reconciliation is clearly conveyed in Menyemai Terang dalam Kelam, most of which features stories as told by survivors, each contributing their personal experience of the tragedy. The stories are sometimes cruel and sometimes sad, but also include some comic tales.

The survivors show consistently that what they have is an open wound, rather than a grudge, and that the wound must heal.

"I had a good discussion with some survivors who saw an earlier version of this film. They were mainly concerned about the image of the guide at Lubang Buaya... They thought it wasn't appropriate to place that man against all our tragic stories, because he believes in the wrong version of history not because he chose to, but rather because of a lack of knowledge," Wiranegara said. "And this shows that we cannot just accuse anybody, a state or military official, of being responsible for what happened... it was the system and situation that made them do what they did."

The fact that this film touches upon a highly politicized period in Indonesian history did not discourage the documentarian from making Menyemai Terang dalam Kelam. In addition, he said he did not encounter any difficulty in obtaining permission or stories from survivors to make the film.

"I think that working with Putu Oka helps a lot, because most survivors know that he's a well-known writer and an advocate for reconciliation. And of course, after going through this kind of experience, you want your story to be heard."