Introduction by Achmad Rifki
Celebrating Light
The Madani International Film Festival 2025 enters its eighth year — a journey of cinema, thought, and spirit that continues to trace the living pulse of Islam and humanity. Each edition of Madani has been a mirror of our time: Coexistence (2018), Reconcile (2019), Re(dis)covery (2020), Light (2021), Ufuk (2022), Buhul (2023), Marwah (2024), and this year, Misykat — a chamber of light held from 8–12 October 2025.
Misykat — drawn from the Qur'an Surah An-Nur: 35 — emerges as Madani’s response to the dark clouds hovering above us, here and across the world, heavy with human tragedy. It reminds us that it is not enough to kindle a spark; we must gather the lights, cradle them, and direct them toward a shared horizon.
The spirit of this year’s festival is to become that vessel of light — to collect, to reflect, and to guide it toward a greater radiance. Over five luminous days, Madani Fest 2025 unfolds: 95 films, 14 performances, 45 discussions, and 5 workshops, woven together through collaborations with 31 communities, NGOs, and universities — a constellation of lights, flickering into one.
The opening film, All That’s Left of You (2025) by Cherien Dabis, casts its glow upon the wounds of Palestine — an elegy of memory, resistance, and hope across three generations. In the midst of silence and rubble, light still finds its way through.
From the Sahel — cradle of Islamic civilization in Timbuktu and Gao — Madani turns its gaze to Africa as this year’s focus region, embracing the pulse of decolonization that rises anew. From the Southeast, stories from Malaysia, Thailand, and Brunei join in dialogue, weaving a cinematic diplomacy of shared faiths and futures. The laughter of Rizal van Geyzel, a Malaysian stand-up comedian, becomes another flicker of that luminous spirit.
This year’s Retrospective honors Garin Nugroho — tracing forty-four years of his cinematic odyssey, from the tremors of nationhood to the quiet mysticism of cultural Islam.
Madani remains open to the world’s storytellers — 1,711 films from many lands entered its vault this year. From them, four short films were chosen by jurors Philip Cheah (Singapore), Sajid Varda (UK), and Natalie Stuart (UK) — each one a small flame adding to the glow.
As part of building Jakarta as the City of Cinema, Madani weaves conversations that may one day become policy, light guiding governance. Across the city, in dialogue with communities, the festival nurtures collective knowledge — kindling civic imagination, rekindling the city’s soul, shaping a luminous commons for all.
With gratitude to the Jakarta Provincial Government, Department of Culture, Bappeda, and the Jakarta Arts Council — especially the Film Committee — whose steadfast light accompanies this festival.
For in truth, darkness never exists — only the absence of light. Injustice never exists — only the absence of justice. So rather than curse the dark, let us together light, ignite, and celebrate the light.
Madani Fest 2025 — where we gather our rays and become the glow we seek. []
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Achmad Rifki
(Director of Madani Fest 2025)