Discoveries from Indonesia World Cinema

'Current' creates layers of time through dance improvisation - in between reality and fiction - performed as a ritual for resistance in a place where rice fields, fish ponds and gardens currently are replaced by fancy buildings and crowded highways. It is the first encounter between a Swedish and an Indonesian choreographer where the only shared language is dance. The movements are an immediate response to space, bursting of ideas, outpouring of dreams, while following currents of struggle and hope through a visual journey.

A young man try to save his friend, cursed by black magic.

Raka has lost his spark and purpose as a poet after marrying Sari. Raras' presence in his life ignites his passion for writing.

A call comes from deep within a dream, recalling familial encounters with shadows in a photographic dark room. Haunting memories and ancestral ceremonies captured during the Netherlands' colonial rule of Indonesia come to light. As we see ways of life destroyed and farmers exploited to fuel the Dutch Empire, new layers of meaning and critical understandings of present-day power emerge.

Fiksi (Fiction) presents a subjective view of historical narrative, de-emphasizing legibility and transparency. The film is composed of images of dioramas at Indonesia’s National Museum.

The Young Farmer is a Mockumenteries film uses fictional language about the last generation of hallucinogenic herbal farmer who fight against the times to preserve the culture of their ancestors

Growing up with a strict mom, a boy got left at a gas station on a family road trip to his mom's friend's wedding. Alone and far away from home, he asked a captivating lost girl for help. They teamed up, borrowed her phone (which happened to be broken), and went on an unexpected adventure to find their way home.

Dreams that appeared in every her sleep taking Rengganis on a "magical" journey with no clear end. He undertook the journey to find out the meaning of his dream, and also to confirm the whereabouts of his lover who had been away for a long time and had never returned.

In the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, a writer embarks on a deeply personal journey to heal a family wound, seeking answers in his Indonesian ancestral roots, where an indigenous agrarian culture centered on traditional palm wine merges with a centuries-old Catholic devotion within the world's largest Muslim-majority nation.

This is a story about a young boy who receives little attention from his mother due to her busy work schedule.

Raja Setya Bumi, a mysterious and greedy nature mafia, searches for a prosperous and happy place to live in the green land and seeks sources of food and clean water to save himself from the destruction of Mother Earth, after feeling the impacts of climate change such as floods and water crises. He becomes enraged and scolds the Queen of Nature because he is hungry, while the Queen of Nature hopes that the trees she cares for will provide him with food. Armed with courage, he depletes the Queen of Nature's food reserves and forces her to find him food and drink that are fit for consumption, so that he is believed to be able to save the Earth and the survival of humanity. The only thing he fears more than hunger and death is being expelled from the Queen of Nature's home.

An elementary school student named Ismail believes that there is a power to a smile. One day, he meets a hot-blooded math teacher that is a skeptic of smiles.

1944 Dutch East Indies propaganda film

A young boy must save himself after waking from a nightmare of his past to find himself tied up in an abandoned place, while a long-dead figure from his past stands a few steps away—moving one step closer every five seconds.

The Leppo’ Ké, a subgroup of the Kenyah, an important Dayak set of people scattered in Borneo across the provinces of East and North Kalimantan (Indonesia) and the state of Sarawak (Malaysia), live in the district of Bahau Hulu, on the uppermost Bahau River, a tributary of the mighty Kayan River. The film was shot in Long Pengayan hamlet, at Apau Ping, the last settlement on the Bahau, and home to Oko’ (Grand-Mother) Asung Kiring. In the past, all Kenyah Leppo’ Ké women were potters, but today this is a dying craft, which is considered dirty work and therefore quite unpopular.

Journey as the traditional Indonesian meal gets prepared

Thong Ngin Fan Ngin Jit Jong is a local wisdom in the form of a philosophy of unity inherent in the Bangka Belitung Islands. This film tells about the close relationship between ethnic Chinese and Malays wrapped in the philosophy of Thong Ngin Fan Ngin Jit Jong.

Responses or attitudes of persons with disabilities/disabilities, especially blind people regarding the accessibility of special lanes for the blind on the sidewalks provided by the local government.

In the Toraja highlands of Sulawesi (Indonesia), Lumbaa is one of the last masters of ritual speech. After his forced conversion to Pentecostalism, he is compelled to stop all his ritual activity and oratory. Concerned by the disappearance of “those who know”, a young Catholic priest named Yans Sulo sets out in search of the society’s ancient oral genres, seeking to invent new forms that would keep them alive. The two men meet. But it is too late. By recounting the life and death of Lumbaa, the film shows how the intrusion of world religion disrupts a Southeast Asian society.

Telling that Raihan is a courier of prohibited goods, Raihan must be able to pass challenges and the gang next to him who is trying to take over the territory assigned by his superiors.

An obsessive veteran filmmaker tries to convince his younger girlfriend who is an actress to wear his late wife's clothes.

Aisha lives with her mother and sister Sarah. For the sake of his mother's healing. sometimes Aisha hid her sadness. One day her mother entrusts Sarah to Aisha to be taken to school. Before arriving at school, Aisha get news that her mother dies. Aisha tries to be strong. Another day Aisha finds a letter. This makes Aisha know who she really is. Note: Produced in Palu by local crews and players.

Two leaders carried away by emotions due to land disputes.

Olla, a woman with mental disorders, suddenly has illusions about her body's emotions, after being catcalled by a group of young men, but these emotions take her to a place that makes her reminisce about painful events.

Somad is a young religious man who is looking for a job as a religious teacher in Jakarta. After few months he hasn't got the job yet, which eats away at his savings. When Somad has breakfast in a food stall with the little money he has left, Sari, a transwoman who has just finished her 'night job', comes into the same food stall.

Modern slavery is still happening in this century. Some of the fates of fishing boat crews are thrown into the high seas

Ngaben: Emotion and Restraint in a Balinese Heart takes an impressionistic look at the ngaben from the perspective of a mourning son, Nyoman Asub, and reveals the intimacy, sadness, and tenderness at the core of this funerary ritual and the feeling and force that underlie an exquisite cultural tradition. Amidst ample cultural and interpretive understandings of the cremation ceremony, the film purposefully provides a personalistic, impressionistic, and poetic glimpse of the process and the complex emotions involved.

In a Balinese village, families go to great trouble and expense for their extravagant cremation ceremony. They provide special foods to mourners and prepare a bounty of offerings for the deceased, from gifts of money to symbolic baskets. The atmosphere is almost festive as a shadow puppet show is performed for the entertainment of the deceased, inheritances are distributed, and musical processions of mourners walk the streets. Dead family members seem almost present as their bones are uncovered, washed, and arranged for cremation with accompanying prayer rites. During the cremation, the village is filled with smoke from enormous burning pyres shaped like bulls, as the souls of the dead are cleansed of impurity and then sent out to sea so that they may continue their journey to heaven. Shot in 16mm, the film documents and explains the intricacies of these funeral rites and Balinese-Hindu beliefs about death.

This film consists of three stories. The first story is about Ryan alias Sasak Adi, a young Sasak native who lives with his uncle (his mother died while giving birth to Ryan) in Jakarta. The second story is about Anjani, a Sasak woman who is obedient and still respects her cultural values. The third is about Wati (Aufa Asfarina Febrianggie), who lives in the same village as Anjani, talkative about following trends.

This is an intimate portrait of a Javanese woman who works as a servant and a cook for a prominent family in Jakarta, Indonesia. While there are many aspects of her life that are specific to circumstances pertinent to Indonesia, Miyah also presents us with a more universal picture. Women all over the world will be able to identify with the strong single parent who is approaching middle age, who must struggle with the day to day problems of making a living to support not only her own children but also her aging parents. Miyah is one of millions of women who live their lives with a kind of quiet dignity that deserves our respect and admiration.

Salman Cooks Fried Rice

The latest film by "You and I" director, Fanny Chotimah, which tries to find the connection between the city and the romance of its citizens through the story of three different generations of couples.

The prominent scenery of Bali is presented through the journey of a romancing couple. It also features the martial arts skill of a young woman, the tear-jerking humour of a comedian, and layered with musical elements.

Oh Ay Cheng, who works on a plantation, has to turn away Marsiti, his faithful lover, for the sake of following his father’s command that he marries Gwat Nio, the daughter of his plantation boss. Marsiti herself persuades Ay Cheng to obey his father. Marsiti then leaves and passes away. Gwat Nio’s father reveals his secret; that Marsiti is his mistress's daughter. From Ay Cheng and Gwat Nio's marriage, Hoey Eng or Lily is born. She grows into a beautiful girl. She is engaged to Sim Bian Koen, the son of Tjikembang's plantation owner.

De Stem des Bloeds, also known as Njai Siti, is a 1930 film from the Dutch East Indies. It was directed by Ph. Carli and starred Annie Krohn, Sylvain Boekebinder, Vally Lank, and Jan Kruyt. The film follows a man and his mistress who reunite after their son and step-daughter unwittingly fall in love.

A colorblind high school student aspires to be a pilot.

Ahead of the 2014 legislative and general elections, the mass media was buzzing with discussions about fluctuations in the prices of basic commodities and hopes for a better government through elected representatives of the people. In Dini Salon and Kardi Salon, male and female customers from various economic classes and social statuses express their honest opinion about the ongoing “nyalon” (running for representative of the people) activity.

Towards Eid al-Fitr, a refugee child wants to fix his sister's clothes. However, running out of thread and having no money, he stole from a traveling tailor who was busy finishing his pile of orders.

Vio and Adim’s friendship had changed after one of them felt the existence of love. Vio's overacting reaction led Adim to the adventure that was not supposed to be. Lira became a witness how Vio and Adim got more closer and turned into deadly jealousy in an island of memories.

The conception of the work is based largely on prehistoric cave paintings on Sulawesi Island, as well as fossils and remains undiscovered or still undergoing excavation in East Asia, Southeast Asia and other regions. The creation of cave paintings marks the dawn of the intelligent creature discovering images for immersive experience. Species of different lineages can develop similar functions because of being in similar environments— what we call convergent evolution; different ethnicity groups, too, are able to develop consistent cognitive ability in similar spaces. As one of the oldest cave paintings, the painting at Leang-Leang cave had witnessed the beginning of consciousness, which happened across different locations in human history. It illustrates the common ground of humans and how they gradually evolve to share more similarities.

In a quaint Padang restaurant, filled with many people enjoying their lunch break, two extremely platonic bros put their extremely platonic friendship to the test when it turns out that there’s only a single plate of their favorite food left: The Rendang of Death. (Massacre may or may not ensue.) Rendang of Death was created with inspiration from the legendary animated short 'Bar Fight' made by the equally legendary animator Christy Karacas.

Di luar batas is a 1984 drama film written by Piet Burnama and directed by Jopi Burnama.

Clouded by so many violence in entertainment, two boys couldn't differ what's okay and what's not.

Lanang tells the story of a girl named Jyoti imprisoned for 8 years by his father in a remote seaside village. His attempts and exorcising her for her gender transgressions force her to flee to the city in this short story exploring the impact of the rural/urban divide on gender.

Party Mix Vol.1 is a music genre video that was released in 2023. This video is 49 minutes long, making every listener feel like dancing to the DJ's music.