As Indone­sia is moving its new cap­i­tal from Jakar­ta to Nusan­tara (also known as IKN), a brand-new city near the forests in Borneo, a Chi­nese-born anthro­pol­o­gy stu­dent inves­ti­gates super­nat­ur­al sto­ries within var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ties around the con­struc­tion site. She encoun­ters local ances­tors, the president’s spirit, and her own unex­pect­ed ghosts. Who are the specters haunt­ing the con­struc­tion? What do the “ghosts” think? Through her let­ters to her mother, the researcher seeks answers about the ten­sions between the local people and the nation­al project, the cal­cu­la­tions between a good life and devel­op­ment, and the bond of the living and the dead.

Yuefei You is a doc­u­men­tary film­mak­er, born in a small town of South­ern China and grad­u­at­ed from Visual Anthro­pol­o­gy (cum laude) at Uni­ver­si­ty of Ams­ter­dam in 2024. About her own artis­tic work she states that her camera cares about how human’s affec­tion and imag­i­na­tion are entan­gled with their envi­rons, both the soci­eties within human­i­ty and those more-than-human.