Dutch documentary Promised Paradise by Leonard RetelHelmrich, which contains images of 2002 Bali bomber Imam Samudra, has becomethe fifth film to be banned at this year's Jakarta International Film Festival(Jiffest) which opened last Friday.

The documentary is about anIndonesian puppeteer who travels to Bali to find theroots of the terrorist attacks. He confronts Imam and even talks to one of thedead suicide terrorists with the help of a paranormal. The Bali bombing was considered a terrorism act which killed over 200 people in2002.

The other four banned filmsare The Black Road, Americanjournalist William Nessen's documentary about the 30-year separatist conflictin Indonesia's Aceh region, as well as three films on East Timor, which gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.

The three films - Passabe, by Singapore director James Leong; Jan van den Berg's Tale Of Crocodiles from Holland, and a12-minute animated Portuguese short TimorLoro Sae by Vitor Lopes - were also submitted to the censorship board forlast year's Jiffest and were again banned this year on the grounds they could "disturbsecurity and order" in the otherwise conducive situation in the Aceh province.

Festival director Orlow Seunke says that he willcontinue to programme the same films for Jiffest until the films get past thecensors.

"Censorship is an admissionto the outside world that Indonesia is not ready to look at the old wounds. We programmethese films not because we want to polarise the society but because we want tocreate understanding for one another," he adds.

However, the censors havecleared A Hero's Journey by Singapore's Grace Phan, a documentary which features East Timor president Xanana Gusmao in a journey through his new country withbreathtaking landscape and heartbreaking stories from tormented people. Thepresident is expected to attend the film's screening this Saturday.