Documentary · 2024 · Indonesia · 15 min 29 sec
Languages: Manado and Tontemboan · Subtitles: English
Watch Trailer · Request a Private Screener · Invite the Film for a Screening
Overview
At 73, Rolly Wuisan, an Indigenous Minahasan from North Sulawesi, has worked for more than 50 years as a traditional cap tikus maker and caretaker of his land. The film follows his daily journey from home to the plantation, where he climbs towering seho palms to collect sap, searches for firewood, and distils cap tikus, a traditional distilled palm spirit from Minahasa.
Rolly’s work is rooted in ancestral knowledge that understands humans and nature as close relatives with a responsibility to protect one another. Alongside his demanding daily labour, he plants and cares for trees and safeguards the forests, rivers, and land around him so they can continue sustaining future generations.
Rolly: A Story of My Father is a meditative portrait of work, resilience, and the relationship between a father and the land he has cared for throughout his life. Told by his son, the film reflects on the vital role of Indigenous knowledge in responding to climate change and protecting the continuity of life.
Trailer
Director’s Statement
I have always been drawn to films about people who protect the earth. Yet many of those stories seemed to come from places far away from where I live. Over time, I realised that similar stories were already present around me—including the story of someone very close to me: my father, Rolly Wuisan.
To many people, my father may appear to be an ordinary traditional cap tikus maker. To me, he is extraordinary. From him, I have learned how humans relate to nature, to one another, and to the Creator. His daily work is not separate from his responsibility to care for the land. He collects sap from seho palms, searches for firewood, distils cap tikus, plants trees, watches over the forest, and protects the rivers that sustain our community.
Filming him was emotionally difficult. Through the camera, I began to notice more clearly how age had changed his body. I heard his breathing as he walked through the hills carrying heavy containers. I saw the sweat on his body and the growing difficulty of work he had carried out for more than five decades. At times, I was too moved to press the record button.
Being beside him during the making of this film became an intimate and deeply spiritual experience. The knowledge of how to live as a Minahasan—knowledge that is increasingly rare—I received directly from the person whose blood flows through my body. This film is therefore not only a portrait of my father. It is also an encounter with my own identity, inheritance, and responsibility.
Rolly: A Story of My Father strengthened my belief that Indigenous Peoples must be able to tell our own stories. Telling stories from within our families and communities is a form of knowledge decolonisation. It allows us to speak in our own voices, represent our lives on our own terms, and share knowledge that might otherwise disappear.
I believe film is an audiovisual spell. It can challenge, move, provoke, and transform people. If a film can change the person who makes it, perhaps it can also change those who watch it.
Festivals and Screenings
2026
Ahmedabad International Film Festival — India
Official Nomination
FICNOVA – Active Nonviolence International Film Festival — Spain
Official Selection
2025
Sydney Film Festival — Australia
Official Selection
Finalist, First Nations Award
Finalist, Sustainable Future Award
Frome International Climate Film Festival — United Kingdom
Official Selection
EcoFrames Environmental Film Festival
Official Selection
Antares Film Festival
Official Selection
FINCALI — Colombia
International Selection
IndiFest — Barcelona, Spain
Official Selection
Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival — Indonesia
Official Selection
International Festival of Ethnological Film — Belgrade, Serbia
Official Selection
Credits
Directed, Written and Produced by
Kalfein Maikel Wuisan
Cinematography, Editing and Sound by
Kalfein Maikel Wuisan
Featuring
Rolly Wuisan
Specifications
Project Type: Documentary
Runtime: 15 minutes 29 seconds
Completion Date: 9 December 2024
Country of Origin: Indonesia
Country of Filming: Indonesia
Languages: Manado and Tontemboan
Subtitles: English
Shooting Format: Digital
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Film Colour: Colour
Director Biography
Kalfein Maikel Wuisan is an Indigenous Minahasan filmmaker, writer, and storyteller from Wuwuk, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Since 2009, he has used photography and film to strengthen Indigenous identity, document cultural knowledge, and support communities in telling their own stories.
He initiated the Smartphone Movement, an Indigenous youth-led initiative that supports community members in using accessible digital tools for photography, filmmaking, graphic design, and the protection of Indigenous Peoples and their territories.
Kalfein’s work is rooted in Minahasa and focuses on Indigenous knowledge, cultural continuity, environmental justice, and relationships between people and their ancestral lands. His films and community-based audiovisual work have been presented in Indonesia and internationally. He has also worked as a facilitator, trainer, speaker, and film-jury member in cultural, environmental, and Indigenous media programmes.
Film Stills
Screening and Film Materials
Private screeners and film materials are available for film festivals, programmers, curators, researchers, media organisations, and community screening partners.
Request a Private Screener
Request Film Materials
Invite the Film for a Screening