Eiland van mijn vader

In the 1970s, the Moluccan people were responsible for several hostage crises in the Netherlands: at the residence of the Indonesian ambassador in Wassenaar, at a school in Boven-Smilde, and two train hijackings. These included the 1975 hijacking of a local train in the province of Drente and that of an intercity train between Assen and Groningen on 23 May 1977, the latter perpetrated by nine armed Moluccan youths. For three weeks, the train stood still near the De Punt railroad crossing. The rescue on 11 June cost two hostages and six hijackers their lives. Ronnie Lumalessil was one of them. His mother still sleeps with the shirt that he wore during the hijacking under her pillow. In the local Moluccan community centre in Assen, there are newspaper clippings about the hijacking on display. The ideal of independence for the Molucca Islands continues to live on in this neighbourhood of Assen, where only Moluccan families live. "I still have the feeling I don't belong here," says Johnny Lumalessil, the subject of this documentary and the brother of train hijacker Ronnie. Thirty years after the hijacking, Johnny's son has the face of his dead uncle tattooed on his chest. His grandfather, the Reverend Samuel Metiari, gets presented with a medal. This film reveals the anger and despair of three generations of freedom fighters, and shows how an ideal can be passed on from father to son.