The Road to Home is an award-winning feature-length documentary about Nobel Peace Prize nominee Benny Wenda, leader of the West Papuan independence movement.
Wenda was born and raised in the Baliem Valley in the remote central highlands of West Papua. In 1977, when he was just two years old, fifteen thousand Lani tribespeople rose up against the Indonesian military’s systematic violence towards the Papuan people. The military’s response was devastating. Aircraft bombed Lani villages, killing thousands, among them many of Wenda’s own family.
For six years, Benny and his family lived in hiding in the jungle. When the Lani people eventually surrendered, he returned to civilian life, later studying Sociology at a state university in Jayapura before becoming Secretary-General of Demmak — the Koteka Tribal Assembly, established by highland elders to protect the customs, values and beliefs of the tribal peoples of the highlands.
In 2001, following a crackdown on pro-independence figures, Wenda was arrested and put on trial by the Indonesian authorities. He escaped while proceedings were still underway and was smuggled across the border into Papua New Guinea, where he was reunited with his wife Maria at a refugee camp. From there he travelled to the United Kingdom, where he was granted political asylum, and has led the campaign for West Papuan freedom from exile ever since.
Granted exclusive access, The Road to Home follows Wenda through his life as a leader in exile — travelling across continents to meet heads of state and politicians, addressing international conferences, and coordinating the wider campaigning activity that keeps West Papua’s cause alive on the world stage. It is a portrait of a man defined by a single purpose: freedom for his people, nine thousand miles away. The film has screened at international film festivals and went on to win Best Documentary at the Amsterdam Film Festival in 2016.
Held in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley, Duke University, the University of Michigan, New York University, UC San Diego, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, SOAS University of London, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Toronto and other leading research institutions.
