Introduction This paper analyzes the film, “Mother Dao – the Turtle-like.” The film depicts life in colonial Indonesia by highlighting the class differences that existed between the colonizers and their subjects. Developers of the film made the documentary by merging a collection of internationally acclaimed film excerpts shot by Dutch filmmakers from 1912 to 1932 (Rony 129). This paper argues that the film is part of a wider representation of historical literature that supported “white supremacy” during the colonial era. Evidence of this paper highlights the acculturation of the Islanders, by their European masters, and the depiction of native Indonesians as poor people who needed “saving,” as examples of “white supremacy.” Lastly, this paper argues that the addition of a spiritual connotation in the film shifts the focus of the audience from the exploitation of Indonesians by their colonial masters. To understand this thesis, it is, first, important to comprehend how the film represents Indonesia, its people, and the colonizers. The Film’s representation of Indonesia The Indonesian people were the main subjects of “Mother Dao – the Turtle-like.” The first impression (of the Indonesian people) that one could get from watching the film is the “traditional” nature of the inhabitants. Albeit open to interpretation, the documentary portrays the Asian country as a retrogressive society with deep cultural beliefs (Rony 129). However, when the colonizers came, they stopped enjoying the rich cultural heritage they used to have because the westerners took over their natural resources and cultural pride. For example, they put oil barrels on the fields and cut down the forest to burn charcoal. This is one type of exploitation perpetrated by the supremacists over their subjects. Cultural domination is another representation of colonial supremacy. Conditions of Life in Indonesia and the Overall Message of the Film “Poor” and “needy” are suitable adjectives that depict the lives of the Indonesian people in “Mother Dao, the Turtle-like.” Screenshots of the Indonesian inhabitants depict them as poor and impoverished people, while, on the contrary, it depicts white people as wealthy rulers who give orders and have their subjects do as they say (Stern 46). Overall, the film portrays white people as supreme powers who came to liberate Indonesia from their primitive cultures by starting new factories and orienting them to a new culture and lifestyle. This depiction occurs through the contrasting lives of native Indonesians, who wore traditional regalia and the working class Indonesians who wore suits and ties to work. The film depicts the latter group as a more civilized section of the Indonesian population, while the former group as a “needy” demographic, which needs help from the Dutch colonialists. Ironically, Stern (89) observes that the intention of the filmmakers was to portray the positive effects of colonization to a Dutch audience. Although such representations elicit negative feelings, it shows how the filmmakers mainly targeted the Dutch (colonialists), as their main audience, by highlighting Indonesia’s impoverished life to justify their invasion. The relationship between the sound and the Film The lack of sound in “Mother Dao, the Turtle-like” made it difficult for the presenters to provide a good narration of the story. Instead, the film looked like a collection of film excerpts, which depicted life in colonial Indonesia. Rony (129) agrees to this understanding by sayi