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.

Turang was screened at the 1958 Afro-Asian Film Festival in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and was considered lost due to the Suharto regime’s repression of leftist and neorealist art. In 2023, the film was rediscovered in the Gosfilmofond archive in Moscow, Russia, thanks to research and discovery efforts by Bunga Siagian, curator/researcher and daughter of Bachtiar Siagian. Turang was then screened in Desa Seberaya, where the film takes place, and then screened at the 2025 International Film Festival Rotterdam. Turang continues to be screened in free community screenings across Indonesia.

Indonesian and Karo with English subtitles | 94 minutes