This is the epic moment when the TANAH AIRKU project started from Aceh province for the first time this month, from Banda Aceh, a completely different world in there. Luckily, there was Mr. Adib and his sweet family waiting for us to give us a sense of orientation a bit and support our project. Everything is new to Su, Anna (who joined us 3 days later), and Irsan, who works online with us. For all of them is the first time working on a travelling documentary project like this.

June began at the edge of Indonesia, Aceh. A world apart, where every step felt unfamiliar. Banda Aceh welcomed us with the kindness of Mr. Adib and his family, whose warmth gave us the orientation we needed. For Su, Anna, and Irsan, it was their first experience working on a traveling documentary, and everything felt both overwhelming and alive. We relied on hitchhiking, still learning how to move, how to survive. From Banda to KM 0, to Rondo and Benggala Islands, the journey turned fragile. We lost our drone to the sea as night closed in, a painful surrender in the middle of waves so strong I thought we would never return. Only Anna smiled, calm as the ocean swallowed both our machine and my certainty. Aceh was not easy. It demanded resilience, demanded faith.
Coffee became our comfort, a taste of Aceh that lingers from Bandas streets to Takengon's Gayo highlands. Yet Takengon tested us harder: contacts vanished, hotels refused foreigners, and we found shelter only in a guesthouse willing to accept three of us in one small room. From there we hitchhiked the perilous road to Medan, where madness ruled the drivers, but calm awaited with the support of our friend Andre. Medan gave us a new drone, a breath of hope. Through Lake Toba and the Batak lands, we found culture, welcome, and also rejection. In Mentawai, hospitality turned to exploitation, almost 20 million lost to a “guide” who sold us a dream at a price of betrayal. Still, we moved forward: Bukittinggi, Padang, and finally Jambi.
Half of Sumatra behind us, my mind carried both exhaustion and escape. Every day was chaos, every moment adventure. But perhaps this is what I needed most: no time for pain, only motion, only story.

TANAH AIRKU - The Beginning