Midnight at Suai Cathedral

On Christmas Eve Wendy Sharpe went to a mass at Suai Cathedral. The cathedral had been the site of a massacre a few months before, the local people had gathered there thinking that it would be a safe haven as it was a holy place and instead they were massacred. At the mass the survivors re-enacted the massacre, they acted out the killing of the nuns and priests, the burning of the houses, and the Interfet coming in as heroes to chase away the militia. The work 'Midnight at Suai Cathedral' is a powerful work and in the faces of the local people the acceptance of survival, a desire to give thanks for that and a need to exorcise the pain is visible. In the foreground the faces are partly illuminated by light and in the background the glow of the sky suggests a burning cathedral shrouding the scene, symbolising the horror and terror of the night.