The Myriad of Faces of the Future Challengers

Emboldened by the 1966 Order of Eleventh March that handed him unrestricted power to restore control after the military coup attempt on October 1st 1965, General Suharto made himself de-facto leader of Indonesia, which he – soon officially installed as President – would remain until 1998. Suharto referred to his reign of vitriolic anti-Communism, Socialism, Islam as the New Order (Orde Baru). And he cemented his vision of history with a whole slew of propaganda epics, some of which became required viewing in schools and were screened annually on TV, most infamously Arifin Chairin Noer’s PengkhianatanG30S/PKI (1984) – which members of the army wanted to screen again in 2017 to educate the people…

Thus, it’s high time for a new look at New Order cinema, especially one as serenely ironic as that of Yuki Aditya and I Gde Mika, who find hints of subversion in the most unlikely of places, but also a sense of make-do and compromise in films touted as dissident. What makes The Myriad of Faces of the Future Challengers special on an aesthetic level is its rigorous use of YouTube material – for this is the true memory and cinémathèque of a nation that has scant interest in something as lofty as film history. Here, every blurry image is an assault against forgetfulness.

– Olaf Möller

Trailer

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