The Waves Saga

What can folklore offer besides a glimpse into the beliefs and customs of a community? Reflecting on the geomythology of West Java, The Waves Saga explores how scientific investigation into natural disasters finds vital insight in indigenous systems of knowledge.

West Java, in current-day Indonesia, was home to the Sundanese Kingdom that flourished for over nine centuries, yet few physical traces remain today that sing of its glory. Nestled in a geologically sensitive zone, the region has long been subject to nature’s unabated fury, with periodic earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions wiping out its heritage and reducing it to a “landscape of amnesia”. 

Badrul Munir’s unassuming, thoughtful documentary The Waves Saga takes off from this material absence, tracing how ecological history and wisdom have instead been encoded in Sundanese myths passed down orally. Through interviews with geologists and community members, the film throws light on the ways in which traditional knowledge systems can complement and enrich scientific inquiry into unpredictable climate phenomena.  

In a spiritual continuation of the oral tradition, Munir’s film embraces the spoken word, preserving a fading body of vernacular knowledge for younger generations. Resolutely local in its preoccupation yet universal in its implications, The Waves Saga realises cinema’s potential as a rampart against forgetting. 

– Srikanth Srinivasan

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•