Despite its relatively small budget, this is an almost epic biographical film about the life of the Chinese/Indonesian writer and journalist Soe Hok Gie (1942-1969). Gie was born a Catholic during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies and educated at the Canisius College and the Universitas Indonesia at a time when tensions under Sukarno were increasing. When Suharto took power, Gie was working as a teacher. He died on his 27th birthday, by inhaling poisonous gases while climbing a mountain, his favourite sport. The post-colonial years were not easy for anyone, but certainly not for an unconventional free-thinker such as Gie. He put reason above loyalty and refused to link himself to political parties, even though he was very committed and interested in politics. In Riri Riza’s film, Gie is played by the half-Indonesian, half-German young actor Nicholas Saputra, with whom Riza has worked before. Many issues surrounding Soe Hok Gie are still sensitive. Gie is also about today’s Indonesia, a country attempting to free itself from the corrupt years of Suharto and now facing the increasing influence of fundamentalist Moslems on cultural life. In this film, however, the censor’s scissors only affected a kiss that lasted a little too long. No objections were made to the emphatic suggestion of homosexuality. (GT)
