East Timor: the mysterious isle | France 5 | Les Routes de l'Impossible

It’s hard to locate East Timor on a world map. Stuck between Bali and Australia, this tiny island is trying to break out of isolation, but its resources are almost non-existent.

Agriculture and fishing are the only means for its inhabitants to make a few dollars per month. Timor is struggling to recover from the terrible war that brought the country to its knees after the Indonesian invasion between 1976 and 1999. A frightful toll of between 100,000 and 200,000 dead. Today, the country is still divided in two, with one part Indonesian and the other, East Timor, independent since 2002. In the most remote villages, the people live entirely cut off. The only solution: a rocky track that is often flooded in the rainy season and where the slightest mistake can be fatal. But that is the price of survival and farmers set out on a long Odyssey to sell a few vegetables in the market in the capital, Dill. After 10 hours on the road, the reward is not always to be found at the end and many are disillusioned.