Vaudine England, Jakarta – Organisers of Jakarta's International Film Festival were kept waiting until the last minute for permission to screen the film banned by former president Suharto, The Year of Living Dangerously.

It is not yet clear whether the delay on the part of Jakarta's censorship authorities shows a failure of reformist conviction on the part of the current Government, or simply its more obvious side effect – bureaucratic chaos. But clearance from the censor board came only hours before the screening at 7pm last night.

The film is a romanticised version of the renowned book of the same name, by Christopher Koch. It is still the only film about the alleged communist coup and subsequent massacres of Indonesians by Indonesians that brought Suharto to power in 1965.

It traces the travails of an Australian journalist, played by Mel Gibson, who is new to the obscurities of Indonesian politics and attempting to make his name. He attempts this at the same time as trying to date a Western diplomat, played by Sigourney Weaver. But the meat of the story lies in the role of a male Indonesian-Chinese dwarf cameraman, in an award-winning portrayal by actress Linda Hunt. This character shows intense compassion for Indonesia's starving masses, at the same time as trying to inform the foreigners about the murky and mysterious world of Jakarta in brilliantly shot scenes of Jakartan slums and high life. The dwarf is torn between the desires for justice and stability, highlighting the ambivalence felt by Indonesians today. But the real reason the film was banned was the film's messages about corruption and violence, and its depiction of how Suharto came to power on the backs of hundreds of thousands of corpses.

When the film schedule was first announced, it seemed unsurprising that the film could now be screened in Jakarta. After all, Suharto is out of power, and years of street rhetoric has insisted on a fresh appraisal of history and a reform of politics under the leadership of the more tolerant President Abdurrahman Wahid.

But there may be others in Jakarta's ruling circles who would have rather done without the dramatic imagery of The Year of Living Dangerously.

In one of the film's more poignant moments, the dwarf has given up on the state of his country and hangs a banner out of a hotel window, imploring Bung Karno. The words are a message to then president Sukarno, father of current Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri, to "Feed your people".