A jermal is a wooden fishing platform that is built in the sea. In this case, some way off the coast. That is important to know, because the whole film is set on the jermal. It’s like a world in itself, but also like a ship on a long journey, or maybe even a prison. Events on the platform are told from the perspective of the 12-year-old boy Jaya. His father is the large and ungainly Johar, the boss of the platform, who wants nothing to do with him, not even in fact recognising him as his son. Jaya has to carry on doing the same slave labour as the other boys on the platform. The boys are a hardened group with a pecking order based on violence, in which Jaya is initially not tolerated. The boy is however cleverer and better educated than the rest and, when he discovers there is a need for his writing, he wins a place for himself. The true prisoner in the end turns out to be the boss Johar, who can no longer go ashore because of his shady past. When it finally gets through to him that he really has a child, he wants to go ashore anyway. The film is soundly made with a fairly large Dutch contribution behind the camera. That is not immediately visible in front of the camera, because the film looks more Indonesian than most Indonesian films do. (GjZ)
