Overview

The eastern Indonesian island of Sumba is the last island in the Malay archipelago where the majority of the people still follow their ancestral religion, called marapu. This film, shot in 1986, focuses on a challenge to the authority of the spirits and ancestors in a village ritual to restore fertility after a fire and famine. Narrated by the priests who communicate with the spirits in prayers and sacrifices, it documents a week of offerings, dancing and oratory in "Dream Village" in the western Kodi district. The name comes from a dream of prosperity the village founder once had, and dreams are also the ways in which priests are called to serve the spirits.