'Breaking the Chains' is an ethnographic documentary that depicts the use of physical restraint and confinement of people with mental illness in Indonesia, an illegal practice known as pasung in this country but common also in other low and middle-income countries, and almost universally ignored.  As result of these practices of physically restraining people with mental illness by members of family or the community, thousands and thousands of people worldwide are estimated to live in isolation, chained, and/or inside 'animal cages', naked, undernourished and often living in their own excrement. The mental and physical consequences of these conditions are profound (e.g. some people lose the ability to walk or die). The Government of Indonesia is the first government of any low or middle-income country that has established a national program to eradicate this practice. Breaking the chains is based in West Java and follows the activities that have been initiated by a group of volunteer led and run by people with mental health problems to stop this practice.