Recruits to a radical Islamic organization are blindfolded before being taken to a contact address. So starts this look behind the scenes of a phenomenon that cannot be discussed. The filmmaker received a visit from the head of counter terrorism. A sensitive film.
In contemporary Indonesia, religious radicalization is playing an increasingly important role. The banned Indonesian Islamic State (NII) successfully recruits among young people who don’t have any prospects of training or work. Nugroho tells three different stories: that of the girl Rima, who emerges as a valuable staff member of the NII; Jabir, who quits school for lack of money and returns to his parents, and Asimah, the mother of Ainsi, who has been kidnapped by the NII.
Rima does so well that she acquires a leading role, but then it soon becomes apparent that there is no room for her ambitions in Islamic conventions. Jabir joins the radical Muslims out of frustration about the lives of his parents, who have no prospects. Asimah walks all over the city looking for her daughter. Nugroho (Leaf on a Pillow, Opera Jawa) made the film on a small budget (less than 100,000 Euros) with primarily non-professional actors. –IFFR
Garin Nugroho Riyanto (June 6, 1961) is an award-winning Indonesian film director who has directed many of Indonesia’s most acclaimed films.
His films have won prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival and Singapore International Film Festival.
His 1991 road film Cinta Dalam Sepotong Roti is often cited as one of the top Indonesian films of the last twenty years.
His 2000 film Puisi Tak Terkuburkan won several awards at the Singapore International Film Festival. —Wikipedia
thanks God, Garin took this project and not someone else. His directing is precise, somewhat poetic in the characters ' movement and his observations are thorough. An eye opening processes into the mind of the people who were involved in the act of terrorism, or its effects on the surrounding.
