The focus of this program lies in the ideas and body of work of one of Indonesia’s most globally recognized filmmakers within World Cinema today.
The selection of Garin Nugroho’s films for Madani Festival 2025 highlights works that embody Madani values while tracing the aesthetic journey of this cinematic maestro. Curated by Hikmat Darmawan (film scholar), this program serves as a glimpse into a forthcoming book currently being written on Garin Nugroho’s oeuvre.
By the time of Madani Fest 2025, Garin’s creative journey will have spanned 45 years, counting from his very first short film Gerbong 1, 2…, produced as his final project while a student at the Jakarta Institute of the Arts (IKJ). This early short is significant—it serves as a kind of blueprint for Garin’s distinctive visual language that has evolved over four decades of filmmaking.
The curator concludes that the most effective way to engage with Garin’s films is to treat them as a “Field of Iconicity.” Nearly every film by Garin explores the play of semiotic iconography alongside a visual language deeply rooted in montage as a foundation for narrative construction.
At least three dominant forms of iconicity can be discerned throughout Garin Nugroho’s works: the iconicity of the body, the iconicity of nationhood, and the iconicity of the real–unreal world—each reflecting the depth and complexity of his cinematic imagination.
Retrospection: Garin Nugroho