Set in the post-revolution days of Indonesia where independence from Dutch rule was achieved, Usmar Ismail's After The Curfew provides a harrowing portrait of revolutionary idealism, one which exhibits how corruption and coercion often aren't uprooted but displaced and realigned from one power structure to another under the allotted nature of statism. While it affronts authority and recognizes the need for individual autonomy at every opportunity, After The Curfew's isn't polemic in tone despite the weight it carries, exuding a general sense of concern on multiple fronts in the wake of the revolution, uneasy first-and-foremost that the sacrifices which so many took for independence will ultimately be in vein. While there are many film's which recognize the importance of revolutionary independence, I'm not sure I've seen one as honest as After The Curfew in how it demonstrates that the real work comes after the revolution, where the zeal of revolutionary violence is still palatable and the power vacuum left in the wake is seductive to those whom crave authority or power over others. While people are bound to get out of this film what they want, the film shows little desire to project any type of specific political historiography lens onto the Indonesia struggle, instead it rings first and foremost as a plea for humanism and equality, showing concern that the masses will fall victim to the same ends via different means in post-revolutionary Indonesia. This is precisely why structural and institutional violence must be opposed rigorously whenever or wherever it is implemented under the veil of progress - oppression over one minority group or one individual for the sake of the majority is still oppression, which is expressed beautifully in this film through the character arch of a young female prostitute who finds her autonomy subjugated no matter the pre or post-revolution temporal space she occupies. From ruling-class bureaucrats and businessman to the overzealous ex-revolutionaries whose answer to nearly any problem seems to deviate towards violence, After the Curfew provides a nuanced yet piercing examination of the post-revolution epoch in Indonesia, exhibiting how coercion, oppression, and misogyny - violence of any kind - is difficult to curtail given the inter-sectional nature of meaningful social formation under any polity. Progress is a ubiquitous term, one which is malleable, which is precisely why a sense of rigor and fortitude are necessary forces when confronting any form of authority, specifically when the goal is freedom and equality for all people across various strata.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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