After a struggle almost as tumultuous as the events it depicted, the Oscar-winning Hollywood film, The Year of Living Dangerously, was screened in Indonesia for the first time last night to a packed house at the second Jakarta International Film Festival.

The country's traditionally conservative censors delayed approving the 1982 film - which depicts the bloody fall of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno, in 1965 - until a few hours before the scheduled screening, because the authorities dug their heels in to show they would not be pressured by what they believed was an international conspiracy.

Last week an Associated Press report told the world that permission had been given to show the film, which the former president, Suharto, banned because it portrayed the communist movement of the 60s in a far different light from the venomous version he, like his predecessor, had drummed into the population.

On Tuesday, festival organisers thought they had the go-ahead when the film was returned to them, though without an authorising letter. This arrived yesterday afternoon, hours before the showing.

"It's been a week of living on the edge," said the festival chairman, Shanty Harmayn.

"At times I thought they were going to say no because this has caused such a fuss."

The screening went ahead despite the censors insisting that some of the slogans on communist banners and a female breast be blurred.

"We don't have a political agenda. This is just a film festival," she said. "We wanted to show it because not many films have been made in Indonesia or about Indonesia."

It was part of the category, Indonesia Through Foreign Lenses, which also included Punitive Damage, a 1999 film about the Santa Cruz cemetery massacre in East Timor in November 1991. Now that East Timor is no longer part of Indonesia, this was approved without a murmur.

Acclaimed in the west, The Year of Living Dangerously stars Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hunt, who won an Oscar for best supporting actress for her role as a local cameraman with a conscience. The 900-seat theatre had people standing at the back, sitting in the aisles, and between the front row and the screen.

•The Jakarta high court upheld an appeal by state prosecutors yesterday and overturned a September verdict to dismiss corruption charges against Suharto. The judges said the trial could continue even if the defendant was not healthy enough to attend court.