☆"Then it was over, before we even knew what happened. That's revolution."☆

Martin Scorsese's "World Cinema Project" collection -- film #16 of 28

The father of Indonesian cinema Usmar Ismail is revered as a legend in the Southeast Asian country, but of course isn't a name even the most ardent worldly cinephiles would know. (And anyway, the only "Indonesian" films you've seen are The Raid and The Raid 2, right?) But it's easy to see why Lewat Djam Malam ["After the Curfew"] is a classic, a thoughtful and intelligent look at a newly independent nation and the effects of such a fight.

Scorsese talks glowingly of Ismail and the film, a look back at the fruits of revolution and the…

After the Curfew is a film about the after-effects of war, both on a man named Iskandar and Indonesia as a whole. Iskandar, a veteran of the Indonesian Armed Forces, took part in the revolution that helped Indonesia achieve its independence from the Netherlands. When people speak with him, they ask him about his time serving. When people talk about him, they praise him as a brave and heroic man. However, the way many people truly treat him is far different and far worse than the previously stated surface-level interactions.

The Indonesia Iskandar battled for as a freedom fighter is different than the Indonesia he returned to once he was no longer serving. The nation is rapidly changing. Furthermore, some…

Iskandar, veteran yang baru pulang dari perang, numpang hidup di rumah Norma, tunangannya. Iskandar yang cuma bisa perang merasa gagap kembali ke masyarakat, terlebih menjinjing beban dosa akibat membunuhi orang tak berdosa atas perintah Gunawan—kaptennya dulu.

Kerja di perusahaan rekomendasi calon mertuanya pun Iskandar diperlakukan seenaknya. Untuk usia Republik yang masih muda, memang negara belum bisa menjamin hidup seorang veteran. Republik baru sembilan tahun merdeka. Usia yang sangat kontekstual dan aktual dengan tahun Lewat Djam Malam dibuat oleh Usmar Ismail tahun 1954. Di mana patroli diberlakukan pun jam malam, mengingat RI benar-benar baru lepas dari Agresi Militer Belanda.

Lewat Djam Malam seperti metafora kalau Iskandar sedang mengalami krisis post syndrome setelah sebelumnya menggelegak darahnya merebut kemerdekaan. Antara sebelum jam malam…

Asian Cinema Challenge, week 4: made in Indonesia (Thanks to Lorenzo for the inspiration to try to get caught up with this!)

It's remarkable how effective After the Curfew -- a film steeped not only in Indonesian history, but also rooted in the specific era in which it was made --  is, even to westerners with profound ignorance of the history being explored. In large part, this is because the challenge faced by people returning from war is, in many ways, universal. No matter the reason the return is difficult for a specific individual (the superficiality of the world to which they've returned, the lack of structure, the trauma caused by war, a feeling of displacement in a world to which…

A harrowing tale of a mild-mannered man who finds himself neither quite here nor there, having fought for Indonesia's independence.

This is not the first time I have seen a soldier lose his sense of individualism or even identity. Iskandar is no different to the norm, but what separates him from other such protagonists is how humane he is, as he crawls towards the identity that he seems to have lost. It indeed is difficult for him, as he was somebody on the battlefield and now suddenly finds himself amongst civilians for whom the biggest concern is so trivial to him that this fact makes him even more disillusioned. He has only just returned, but a lack of role for…