Turang – an Indonesian Film Forum screening

Indonesian Film Forum is proud to present the US East Coast premiere of Bachtiar Siagian’s Turang (1957) – a seminal piece of Indonesian film history, rediscovered in 2023 after having declared lost for many years.

Turang centers a love story between Batak Karo villager Tipi and Indonesian freedom fighter Rusli during Indonesia’s fight for independence from Dutch colonial rule. It is a document of Indonesian post-colonial cinema that colors a world beyond the military-centric independence narratives we often see. Turang displays Bachtiar Siagian’s neorealist streak and sincerity in telling the story of the Karo people, which also reflects his work as a member of LEKRA and the head of the 1964 Afro-Asian Film Festival – a film initiative stemming from the 1955 Afro-Asian conference in Bandung. A majority of Bachtiar Siagian’s films remains unseen to the contemporary audience, as LEKRA members were exiled or imprisoned after the 1965-66 anti-communist purge and Suharto’s presidency that emerged after.