When Olaf Möller (IFFR Selection Committee) gave an introduction to the second screening of Bachtiar (2024) at the Cinerama theater, he said that when Stefan Borsos (IFFR Selection Committee) was discussing 70 Years of the Asian-African Conference with Yuki Aditya (Forum Lenteng and IFFR Tiger Award Jury 2025), and was about to screen the film Turang (director Bachtiar Siagian, 1957), they were also offered a film about Bachtiar himself. And Olaf found Bachtiar, “kind of an interesting way to talk about a filmmaker, and really excavate him.” The screening of Bachtiar was one of the Bandung Conference programs that became one of the focuses of the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025 in celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Asian-African Conference. This meeting influenced many global discourses and movements in the 1950s. To discuss the legacy of the 70th Asian-African Conference, IFFR framed it in the program Focus: Bandung Conference, which featured screenings of Turang, Bachtiar, Tiger Talk: Through Cinema We Shall Rise, and Pro Dialogue: The Spirit of Bandung – Co-Productions and Film Festivals as Catalysts for Collaboration. In addition to these focus programs, other Indonesian films also enlivened the 54th IFFR in various programs, including Till Death Do Us Part (Upi, 2024), Gowok: Javanese Kamasutra (Hanung Bramantyo, 2025), Whisper in the Dabbas (Garin Nugroho, 2025), Midnight in Bali(Razka Robby Ertanto, 2025), Shaping the Future (Putu Kusuma Wijaya, 2025), and a program focusing on the work of Timoteus Anggawan Kusno. Films and discussions about Indonesia dominated IFFR, as IFFR’s intention to discuss the history and works of Indonesia this year was obvious. Turang is one of Bachtiar Siagian’s films that won Best Film at the 1960 FFI, was screened at the 1960 Afro-Asia Film Festival in Cairo, and circulated in communist countries in Eastern Europe in the 1960s. After the 1965 historical crisis, many films by artists affiliated with communism were banned, including Turang, so the film was lost. It was rediscovered in Gosfilmfond, a Russian state film archive, by the network of Bunga Siagian and Forum Lenteng who were looking for the film for Bachtiar production since 2021. Turang frames the struggle of the people’s militia in the Karo region of North Sumatra against the Dutch and emphasizes the cooperation between the people and the militants. In the introductions to screenings and discussions after screenings of Turang, Bunga Siagian always emphasizes that this film is different from other films that tell about national struggles. While these other films emphasize the perspective of the army and national institutions in the struggle against colonialism, Turang highlights everyday life, traditions, and solidarity between citizens. Bachtiar Siagian, the director of Turang, is “faintly heard in the history of Indonesian cinema,” to quote the narrator in Bachtiar. He was also one of the jurors for the 1964 Afro-Asian Film Festival in Jakarta, as well as the chairman of the event’s committee. Bachtiar is considered an important exponent of leftist Indonesian cinema in the 1950s, usually pitted against Usmar Ismail, the father of Indonesian cinema. However, Bachtiar’s work that can be traced to this day is very limited, apart from Turang, there is Violleta (1962) found at Sinematek Indonesia. Bachtiar, directed by Hafiz Rancajale, tries to trace Bachtiar’s figure and thoughts, through archives, personal notes, letters, and people who knew him. After the 70th anniversary of the Asian-African Conference in Bandung, which triggered many subsequent gatherings with the spirit of Bandung, be it among students, journalists, in the fields of film, literature, etc., the spirit seemed to be “grabbed” by non-elite citizens to mobilize global solidarity. However, after the octopus hand of the Cold War victors crushed the progressiveness of the global South, the Bandung Spirit and global solidarity were silenced and began to be unearthed again later in what is referred to as the Global South. In the realm of cinema, the practices that may have been and are being carried out by several cinema organizations and networks with the awareness of this Global South solidarity sought to be discussed in two discussion sessions, namely Tiger Talk: Through Cinema We Shall Rise, and Pro Dialogue: The Spirit of Bandung – Co-Productions and Film Festivals as Catalysts for Collaboration. The discussion Through Cinema We Shall Rise was moderated by Elena Razlogova (researcher, Montreal) with speakers Bunga Siagian (curator, Jakarta), Enoka Ayemba (curator, Cameroon), Ahmed Refaat Bahgat (curator, Cairo), and Ali Khamraev (filmmaker, Uzbek). Bunga highlights how the people who organized the 1964 Afro-Asian Film Festival in Jakarta were leftist filmmakers, including her father, Bachtiar, and how she discovered Turang’s film with the help of friends in various countries. Ahmed talked about how the spirit of Bandung brought back post-KAA in Egypt sparked a lot of film activities, and Ayemba also talked about the same context in his country. Meanwhile, Ali Khamraev, who attended the 1958 Afro-Asian Film Festival in Tashkent, recalled the festival and the discussions that occurred at that time. In the discussion The Spirit of Bandung – Co-Productions and Film Festivals as Catalyst for Collaboration it is discussed how the possibility of global cooperation and solidarity today through film productions and film festivals. The discussion was also moderated by Elena Razlogova, with speakers Adi Osman (Forum Lenteng, Indonesia), Garin Nugroho (filmmaker, Indonesia), Giasuddin Selim (filmmaker, Bangladesh), and Rina Damayanti (JFW, Indonesia). Adi explained about Arkipel – Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival which in every event discusses global issues and mobilizes global discussion and cooperation, and several other Forum Lenteng activities. Rina Damayanti explained about Jakarta Film Week which seeks to foster the cosmopolitanism of audiences and budding filmmakers in Indonesia. Meanwhile, Garin and Giasuddin discussed issues surrounding film production funding and models of cooperation in film production. Year Location
2025
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
The Spirit of Bandung in the Spotlight of International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025
