Sitor Situmorang
(Sumatra 1924) is a Poet of the generation of 1945. He worked in Indonesia as a journalist and as a teacher at the National Academy for Theatre in Jakarta. He was chairman of the National Council of Culture. From 1967 to 1976 he was imprisoned under Souharto's regime. From 1982 to 1990 he was a professor at Leiden University. After that he lived respectively in Pakistan, Paris and Jakarta. He now lives in the Netherlands. In 1990 Bloem op een rots (Flower on a Rock; poems) was published; in 1996 De oude tijger (The Old Tiger, short stories). The bilingual collection of stories Lembah Kekal/Eeuwige Vallei (Eternal Valley) was published in October 2004 in Jakarta on the occasion of his 80th birthday. At this moment a film portrait is being made. In October 2006 he was Awarded with the South East Asain Write Award in Bangkok.
Past events
Right and Wrong
Living in a country torn by war means making choices, choosing between right and wrong, is the general feeling. 'During the war you just lived your life,' says Immanuel Hutajulu, 'the gentleman bandit', on the choices he never made. Actor Martijn Apituley plays Immanuel's life story, written by Marije Plomp. Writer and poet Sitor Situmorang reads from his story Kasim, about the well-considered choices of a perseverant civil servant. Dutch spoken.
