Amrus Natalsya Who Recreates the Dispossessed in Twilight

In 1965, Indonesian artist Amrus Natalsya was one of the many artists arrested during the violent purge of communists and their sympathisers, after the failed coup by the September 30th Movement. Natalsya was released in 1973.

In this wide-ranging portrait, with extensive contemplation of Natalsya’s art from the late 1950s to the present, we meet the artist, but mainly his friends, colleagues, and historians. A study in the form of a large number of interviews interlaced with archive footage whilst, naturally, Natalsya’s paintings and sculptures take centre stage. A film about political inspiration and a critical, humanist perspective; about shaking off imprisonment, surviving, and maintaining your own artistic convictions; about the painted low-relief panels so typical of Natalsya; about a prominent artist, for whom the 1945 revolution is far from completed.