Photos from Passabe. Fragments that never made it into the film. Images to remind us we were there.

Ruins, Passabe Village, February 2004
The Indonesian army left behind a trail of destruction after Timor’s vote for independence in 1999. Burnt-out of skeletons of buildings dotted the village when we first arrived. Five years after the violence, people were still living in makeshift shelters.

The Passabe Hilton, Passabe Village, March 2005
Crew accommodation. Great views and plenty of fresh air. No windows, no electricity, no water and no toilet.

Mary and Inacio Soares, Passabe Village, March 2005
Our neighbours. She’s the village midwife and he’s the local superstar. Inacio sings the Reconciliasi song in our film. He’s also the go-to crooner for weddings, Christmas celebrations, annual sacrifices, village meetings and all major and minor parties.

School, Passabe Village, February 2005
Florencio Tacaqui, the former militia leader found guilty of eight counts of crimes against humanity in our film, was a village teacher. He was apparently a very patient man who never lost his temper.

Old ladies in truck, Oesilo, July 2005
Hitching a ride to Passabe Village was always a bit of a saga. We’d wake up early in the morning and lug all our gear and supplies to Tono market and wait. And wait. And wait. If we were lucky, a truck would show up. These two old ladies were our travelling companions on one of our trips… along with a goat and several chickens.

Kids, Passabe Village, April 2005
The nights can be chilly in Passabe.

Graves, Tumin Village, February 2005
The 74 men who died in the Teun Lasi massacre are buried here. Fensi, our translator, tells us that the cemetary looks very different now. Families of the deceased have added new gravestones, replaced the wooden crosses with ceramic ones, planted trees, beautified the place.

Passabe Village, February 2005
Sunsets are brilliant here. Absolutely stunning.

Passabe crew, Tumin Village, September 2005
Tumin is perched on windy ridge, wedged somewhere between Indonesia and an occasionally impassable river. It is remote. But it has near-perfect cellphone reception – that is, if you stand on this one particular spot, in front of the village church, under the tree. Move away from the tree, and the call gets disconnected.