Through Hapus, we hope to invite audiences to retrace the feelings that arose from the 1998 riots, whose targets are mostly represented through the Pintu Besar Selatan area of Glodok.

The year, setting and characters are prepared to present an alternative understanding of the 1998 riots, and at the same time a critique of the ways this event is narrated.

One of its treatments, "we are all victims, we are all perpetrators," is the main narrative of Hapus. It reminds us that the 1998 tragedy is rooted not only in the event itself, in a history that is often twisted, erased and forgotten, but has shaped particular ways of thinking about and interpreting institutions and one another's identities.

The film tells of the ghost of history that comes to those who modify and erase history. These ghosts also live within each of us, in our own memories, in our shared collective memory.

Nothing separates the ghosts, that is, all of us who became victims, from all of us who have also become cogs in the machine that erases history.

The Orwellian erasure and modification of history in 1984 is, it turns out, truly happening now, above all in our Minister of Culture's viral statement on how he sees the history of 1998. We can become perpetrators, or we can be the ones who speak up against the erasure of history that is taking place.

— Mahatma Putra

Jakarta is a witness to Indonesian history. Behind the glitter of its metropolitan towers lie many secrets of events that shaped the nation's course, among them the 1998 riots, which claimed many lives.

Unfortunately, historical facts are often erased today for political interests, a propaganda that wants the dark history of 1998 forgotten by the public.

Hapus wants to raise awareness of the danger of erasing historical facts, in the form of a more entertaining horror film so that its message can reach a wide audience. We believe the dark history that haunts us is best accepted as it is, as a lesson so that it never happens again.