Final Rating: 4/5
A gender non-conforming spiritual leader prepares to embark on Islam’s most important pilgrimage in the fly-on-the-wall documentary A Distant Call, directed by Andrea Suwito.
Eka is a member of the bissu, one of the five gender groups of the Bugis people in South Sulawesi. They live on the fringes of mainstream Indonesian Muslim society and must square their religious obligations with their spiritual traditions, and personal gender expression.
Director Andrea Suwito’s debut film follows Eka on their preparation for the Hajj. We see Eka working in their bissu-run wedding garments store, discussing their religion and tradition with bissu elders, and going to the mosque in anticipation of their pilgrimage. Through these discussions, Suwito provides a window into Indonesian and South Sulawesi culture.
At the core of A Distant Call is a fundamental question: is it even possible for a transgender person to complete a sinless Hajj? In mainstream Islam, many would consider gender-nonconformity to be a rejection of God’s design, and therefore sinful by nature.
Eka is committed to traditional bissu responsibilities, which include several local ceremonies – including officiating weddings – and their devotion to the Muslim faith additionally provides context on the prominence of religion within Indonesia. Even within South Sulawesi, those who have completed their pilgrimage gain a special societal status; many of Eka’s elders include “Haji” as a title before their given names. While Eka’s motivation to complete the pilgrimage seems motivated primarily by their religiosity, it’s notable that, by completing the Hajj, their societal standing would be improved, the title Haji functionally erasing any other stigmas.
While bissu are gender-conforming within the Bugis five-gendered society, Indonesia’s mid-20th-century Islamic rebellion and subsequent administrations targeted several elements of regional Indonesian societies deemed to be “un-Islamic,” leading to a modern-day marginalization of bissu not unlike transgender marginalization in other parts of the world.
The conflict isn’t one-sided, either. Participation in the Hajj implies devotion to Allah, while completing the rituals of the bissu falls within the worship of the Bugis gods. To complete the pilgrimage and continue the Bugis rituals could be seen as heretical towards Allah; to devote one’s life to Allah in the first place could be seen as heretical to the Bugis gods. Eka’s preparation for the pilgrimage is framed in parallel to them accepting the impending end of their time as bissu, at least in role.
Indeed, the question of whether the pilgrimage might “cure” Eka’s gender identity, setting it back to their gender assigned at birth is raised multiple times (mostly veiled and in passing by other worshippers at their mosque).
A Distant Call presents a unique view of an indigenous population caught between two worlds. A people holding onto their existing traditions and history while having accepted the culture and society of a colonizing group. Through Eka, the traditions of South Sulawesi are on full display, while acknowledging the reality of modern Indonesia. In Suwito’s filmmaking, the story is presented without judgement or guidance; can two traditions coexist, or does one necessarily edge out the other? Even in the case of coexistence, are the bissu, the Bugis themselves, a dying breed?
A Distant Call was seen during the 2026 Hot Docs film festival. Thank you to
