Populär Vun Indonesia

Plot under wraps

The maritime life and the complexity of matters, which include conflicts of interest, in one of the busiest waters in Asia, the Strait of Malacca, are accumulated through bodies. The other side of stories from archipelago was assembled and retold by Irwan and Tita after they conducted visits to several islands in Riau Archipelago, especially to Batam Island, a region that was once planned to be converted into an industrial area in 70s but now is facing the most serious challenges created by social problems.The region is tangling with interests and power centralized in Java Island which has created uncontrolled distortion.

After two years apart, former lovers Dido (25) and Uca (24) meet again by chance at a cafe. Their reunion happens on an ordinary afternoon, just after Uca finishes shopping for her wedding preparations. Dido offers her a ride home, and what begins as a casual gesture slowly turns into an unexpected emotional journey. As they drive, laughter fills the silence between them. Memories resurface, and for a brief moment, they forget the distance that time once built. Old feelings quietly rekindle in Dido’s heart, leading him to confess what he has long kept hidden, that he still loves her. What was once a cheerful reunion becomes heavy with unspoken emotions. Uca, torn between her past and her present, finds herself questioning whether love ever truly ends or simply changes its form.

It was only one year after the earthquake in Palu, amidst the hustle and bustle of Palu City’s revitalization, Gana a 14 year old girl, is forced to marry a 40 year old widower to reduce the economic burden on her family. After the disaster, Gana lives with her aunt and uncle in a temporary shelter. In the days leading up to her wedding, Gana wants to run away but feels conflicted. Whenever she tries to run away, aftershocks come.

Anton Solihin is an interesting person. As the owner and caretaker of Batu Api library, a small library in Jatinangor, West Java, Indonesia, he is known for his unique taste and character. Batu Api, established on April 1, 1999, has been a haven for university students studying in Jatinangor—an educational area with four universities and a combined student population of no less than 10,000—to find and check out books. In a country that ranks lowest in literacy statistics, owning and operating a private library in Indonesia can be considered a determined and tenacious act, if not a bit crazy.

This film reflects the journey of artist Teguh Ostenrik in uniting art and nature, especially the ocean. Troubled by the damage to marine ecosystems and longing for the kind of silence not found in galleries or studios, Teguh created ARTificial Reef, an underwater sculpture that is both beautiful and functional as a home for coral and marine life. Told through a personal and contemplative narrative, the film explores a creative process that blends art, science, and spirituality. Teguh collaborates with divers, scientists, and coastal communities, showing that art thrives through connection and ecological awareness.

Red eggs have always been present in Ivonne’s life—a symbol of birth, continuity, and the cycle of life itself. Through a reflective and autoethnographic approach, she weaves together family archives from her childhood with the documentation of her grandmother’s 91st birthday celebration. In tradition, red eggs are prayers for a prosperous future, but for Ivonne, they also mark the passage of time.

A farmer chances upon a book, and within its pages he perceives that the devotion of his life, since his first breath, draws near its close. Once touched by knowledge, he feels estranged from cows, no longer bound to their world.

A cinematic interpretation of a singular aspect from the universe of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Emerging from Macondo, the film foregrounds the domestic routines of the Buendía women who repair and renovate the house each time it collapses under extraordinary events across the century. These recurring gestures, which in the novel traverse generations, are recontextualized through the logic of contemporary reality and reconfigured into a visual play of form that interrogates narrativity.

A visual essay obsessed with lines in space—as form, boundaries, and language—that tells a story about a part of the history of solidarity through cinema. Will they have a second chance?

Fragments of light and language once circulated under a military regime’s gaze. Drawing from newspaper archives and the incident site, the work asks what printed words conceal, preserve, or reveal. In revisiting the 1984 Tanjung Priok tragedy, it examines both the violence itself and the contested role of media in shaping memory and truth. Two narratives emerge: official accounts and marginal voices. By confronting archival dissonance, the film exposes how media operates—exhuming suppressed histories and counter-narratives, and suggesting that history is shaped not only by authorities, but also by what remains unwritten.