The Rise of Indonesian Films

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The country’s movie industry was on the brink of collapse in 2011. New import policies on top of three “minor” taxes totalling 23.75 percent, 15 percent revenue tax, and an entertainment tax of 10 to 15 percent shut down any semblance of foreign films in Indonesia. With now only 800 screens for a population of 240 million – in comparison to approximately 2,830 screens for Canada’s 35 million people – the situation would appear dire at first glance.

The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2: Berandal, however, have been the two notable films representing the resilience of the industry. Though the situation is still developing, these two titles have sparked a movement of high quality localized filmmaking in Indonesia that can receive international praise.

The Raid managed to first premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011 – just a few months after the new import policies – to positive reviews such as, “this violent, intense and brilliant bulletfest from Indonesia puts western action movies to shame,” from Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian. This reception from critics was despite a mere $1.1 million budget, a simple premise and setting, and an inexperienced director and cast. The Raid managed to create a lasting impact on viewers through brilliant action scenes involving the traditional Indonesian martial art known as pencak silat. Distribution deals from companies in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, Japan, and almost a dozen others allowed the film and Indonesian cinema as a whole to continue its relevance around the globe.

Two Indonesian movies called Sang Penari (The Dancer) and Rectoverso headlined the country’s involvement with prominent screenings at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. This was backed up by Indonesia’s own promotion of 50 other films at the “Indonesian Cinema du Marche du Film” booth.

The Raid 2 premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2014 with a greater emphasis on the story, a $4.5 million budget, and high expectations after the success of the original, and succeeded by obtaining similarly positive reviews. This also includes mentions on multiple critics’ year-end lists including seventh on IMDb’s Top 10 Films of 2014, and tenth on HixFix’s Top 50 films of 2014.

The future for the industry holds a lot of promise. Three actors from The Raid 2 – Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, and Cecep Arif Rahman – have been added to the cast list for J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens for currently unknown roles. Indonesia will also see a new integrated film market called the Equator Film Expo in March 2015 with the newly established Indonesian Film Council as part of a three-year plan to develop the local movie industry.

While Indonesia still has not achieved much international credibility – including the hunt for the country to earn its first Best Foreign Film nomination from the Oscars – the foundation has been laid due to the quality and international attention of The Raid series. Guillaume Catala, a French film producer who co-founded EFX, demonstrated this potential: “Indonesia has the fourth largest population in the world but has very little soft power, so our goal is to build up this industry and give Indonesia a voice.”

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