Completed - INDONESIAN - Drama, Second film, Biography - 97 minutes
Wiji Thukul, an activist poet, becomes a fugitive after Jakarta’s 1996 riots. But what’s the point of a life in exile if you can’t be with your wife and children?
Year of production : 2016 Director(s) : Yosep ANGGI NOEN Writer(s) : Yosep ANGGI NOEN, Yosep anggi NOEN Cast : Gunawan MARYANTO, Marissa ANITA, Eduward MANALU, Melanie SUBONO, Davi YUNAN Producer(s) : Yosep ANGGI NOEN, Yulia EVINA BHARA
In July 1996, riots break out in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. Wiji Thukul, an important critical and political poet, and a few other activists are designated as suspects and the police starts looking for them. Wiji has no choice but to leave his town, Solo, to escape to Borneo, 3,000 kilometers away. Now a fugitive, Wiji starts his exile in fear. What if he was recognized and arrested?On the road he is helped, protected and fed by activists who take him from house to house, from village to village away from the center of the repression. He soon moves in the home of a young couple, who helps him find a small job. Writing poems, short stories and changing identity slowly help him find a certain peace. But in his mind and heart remain his wife, Sipon, and their two children left behind in Solo. There, under constant surveillance and pressure from the police, his family tries to go on with their daily life. One day Wiji can’t take it anymore. He wants to go home. Never mind the danger and the lack of money. What is life if you can’t be with the ones you love?
Country(ies) : INDONESIA
Busan - BIFF/APM 2016 A Window on Asian CinemaLocarno IFF 2016 (Cineasti del Presente Competition)Vladivostok IFF Pacific Meridian 2016 (Competition)Filmfest Hamburg 2016 (Veto! Competition)QCinema IFF 2016 (Competition)Festival of 3 Continents, Nantes 2016 (Competition)Jogja Asian Film Festival 2016 (Golden Hanoman Award)Rotterdam IFFR 2017 (Bright Future)IndoFILMcafe Nijmegen 2017Cine Aasia Helsinki 2017