Shalahuddin Siregar

During the 1965 mass killings and political upheavals to eliminate the Indonesian Communist Party, the new government banned hundreds of Indonesian scholars in the Soviet Union and China from their homeland, forcing them to exile across European countries without status. Shifting between the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, and Indonesia, this documentary follows those whose lives were uprooted decades ago as they recall the fate-changing events and strive to find the closest way to feel home. It’s a story of life built over trauma, the right to reclaim national identity, and a quest to define home through a collective of heartbreaking memories preserved by a group of cast-out intellectuals.

During the 1965 mass killings and political upheavals to eliminate the Indonesian Communist Party, the new government banned hundreds of Indonesian scholars in the Soviet Union and China from their homeland, forcing them to exile across European countries without status. Shifting between the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, and Indonesia, this documentary follows those whose lives were uprooted decades ago as they recall the fate-changing events and strive to find the closest way to feel home. It’s a story of life built over trauma, the right to reclaim national identity, and a quest to define home through a collective of heartbreaking memories preserved by a group of cast-out intellectuals.

A Boarding School offers rare access inside an Islamic boarding school, and an insight into a traditional educational system that fosters good character-building based on a peaceful religious teaching that has been practiced in Indonesia for centuries. Raising their students to respect and to have compassion towards others despite their differences, these schools are Indonesia’s last defense in the face of today’s rising extremism.

A Boarding School offers rare access inside an Islamic boarding school, and an insight into a traditional educational system that fosters good character-building based on a peaceful religious teaching that has been practiced in Indonesia for centuries. Raising their students to respect and to have compassion towards others despite their differences, these schools are Indonesia’s last defense in the face of today’s rising extremism.

A Boarding School offers rare access inside an Islamic boarding school, and an insight into a traditional educational system that fosters good character-building based on a peaceful religious teaching that has been practiced in Indonesia for centuries. Raising their students to respect and to have compassion towards others despite their differences, these schools are Indonesia’s last defense in the face of today’s rising extremism.

Siti and Bondan, a couple of bride and groom-to be faced with a bitter truth when they were getting ready for their wedding plan.

Siti and Bondan, a couple of bride and groom-to be faced with a bitter truth when they were getting ready for their wedding plan.

An inter-faith family come to a conflict when the mother, Maryam, died. The children (Fara, Aryo, and Adi) and the housemaid (Ijah) debating on how Maryam will get buried. When Maryam's funeral problem get solved, turns out that other problems still haunting them one by one.

Nokas, a 27 years old man has a simple dream that is to marry his beloved Ci, a Timorese girl who works in a slaughterhouse in Sumili, Kupang. It is not easy to marry a Timorese girl who due to the belis or dowry a man has to pay. The amount varies but it is never a bargain. Sometimes such tradition makes marriage sound like a business transaction which the women become merely an object. In addition Nokas has to get another fund ready for two wedding ceremonies in two locations. Hailing from a poor family Nokas has to make a strategy in funding the costly wedding ceremonies many problems emerge from such big issue like the dowry he has to pay to the parents to the issue of wedding dress. With observational approach this movie is depicting the efforts of Nokas’s family in fulfilling his wedding expenses.

Nokas, a 27 years old man has a simple dream that is to marry his beloved Ci, a Timorese girl who works in a slaughterhouse in Sumili, Kupang. It is not easy to marry a Timorese girl who due to the belis or dowry a man has to pay. The amount varies but it is never a bargain. Sometimes such tradition makes marriage sound like a business transaction which the women become merely an object. In addition Nokas has to get another fund ready for two wedding ceremonies in two locations. Hailing from a poor family Nokas has to make a strategy in funding the costly wedding ceremonies many problems emerge from such big issue like the dowry he has to pay to the parents to the issue of wedding dress. With observational approach this movie is depicting the efforts of Nokas’s family in fulfilling his wedding expenses.

Silenced for more than 50 years, a group of elderly women in Indonesia decided to share the country’s forgotten history to the young generation through singing. The women formed a choir group that sings songs written inside prisons by those who were arrested and sentenced for years without any single trial. The singing and sharing has helped them heal their trauma as well as connecting them with an eager young audience.

In the rhythm of a slow visual journey, "The Land Beneath the Fog" takes an intimate look on family relations in Genikan, a village on the slope of Merbabu Mountain. A quiet community faces change without understanding why it happens. As a community of farmers who rely on traditional Javanese calendar system to read the seasons, they become puzzled by the dramatic change of seasons. Describing a life on the brink of vanishing, this documentary offers deep insights into an invisible and disenfranchised society which is struggling hard underneath its veiled existence.

In the rhythm of a slow visual journey, "The Land Beneath the Fog" takes an intimate look on family relations in Genikan, a village on the slope of Merbabu Mountain. A quiet community faces change without understanding why it happens. As a community of farmers who rely on traditional Javanese calendar system to read the seasons, they become puzzled by the dramatic change of seasons. Describing a life on the brink of vanishing, this documentary offers deep insights into an invisible and disenfranchised society which is struggling hard underneath its veiled existence.

In the rhythm of a slow visual journey, "The Land Beneath the Fog" takes an intimate look on family relations in Genikan, a village on the slope of Merbabu Mountain. A quiet community faces change without understanding why it happens. As a community of farmers who rely on traditional Javanese calendar system to read the seasons, they become puzzled by the dramatic change of seasons. Describing a life on the brink of vanishing, this documentary offers deep insights into an invisible and disenfranchised society which is struggling hard underneath its veiled existence.

In the rhythm of a slow visual journey, "The Land Beneath the Fog" takes an intimate look on family relations in Genikan, a village on the slope of Merbabu Mountain. A quiet community faces change without understanding why it happens. As a community of farmers who rely on traditional Javanese calendar system to read the seasons, they become puzzled by the dramatic change of seasons. Describing a life on the brink of vanishing, this documentary offers deep insights into an invisible and disenfranchised society which is struggling hard underneath its veiled existence.