BANNED FILM SERIES: TURANG
Presented by Bunga Siagian (in-person)
Wednesday, November 4, 2026 | 7:00 PM | FREE
Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema (Room 3200)
911吃瓜 School for the Contemporary Arts
149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver
Please join us for the Canadian premiere screening of Bachtiar Siagian's Turang (1958, 87 min), with a post-screening discussion with Bunga Siagian, John Roosa, and Ayu Ratih.
Warnings: Themes, images, and sounds of extreme violence.
Synopsis
After resisting the Dutch army, freedom fighter Rusli suffers serious injuries. Tipi and her father, the chief of the Dutch-occupied village, become responsible for Rusli鈥檚 safety and recovery. This neorealist film prominently features the contribution of ordinary people to the liberation struggle.
Leftist filmmaker Bachtiar Siagian鈥檚 long-lost film Turang is one of several post-independence Indonesian films depicting the independence struggle against the Dutch. Unlike other films that mostly centre on the military sphere, this film highlights the crucial role of ordinary people in liberation struggles. Set in an indigenous Karo community, the film depicts, in neorealist style, the people鈥檚 land, traditions, and unwavering determination for freedom.
Rusli, a people鈥檚 militia leader, was on a mission with a Karo man when Dutch troops confronted them. Severely injured and unable to continue the journey, Rusli鈥檚 comrades hide him in Seberaya village, located on Dutch territory. Tipi and her father, the village chief, are entrusted with his safety and recovery. From that risky circumstance, the film shows the ordinary lives of the villagers, their genuine solidarity with the freedom fighters, a blossoming romance between Tipi and Rusli, and the difficulties brought about by the raids of the Dutch army.
Turang is an important archive of the left regarding decolonisation. History has seen how third-world nationalist elites and military regimes have hijacked national independence, and Turang expresses a call to recognise and restore national sovereignty to its rightful owner: the people.
鈥� Bunga Siagian
(For International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2025)
Supported by 911吃瓜鈥檚 David Lam Centre, School for the Contemporary Arts (Community Engagement Fund), Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies, Department of English, School for International Studies, and the Canada Research Chairs program.
Biographies
Ayu Ratih is co-founder and director of the Indonesian Institute of Social History (ISSI), an archive dedicated to documenting the history of social movements in Indonesia. Since 1999, she has worked with fellow historians and human rights activists to build oral history archives recording the experiences of survivors of the 1965 anti-Communist mass violence. Before moving to Vancouver, Canada, she was involved in various advocacy initiatives seeking justice for victims of human rights abuses in Indonesia and East Timor. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia and has been active in the Transformative Memory International Network since 2017.
Dr. John Roosa is Professor at the Department of History and the Director of the Centre for South East Asia Research at UBC. His research centres around the themes of Nationalism, Imperialism, and Oral history. His most recent book project Buried Histories: The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965-66 in Indonesia presented a detailed and moving exploration of organized violence against communist party supporters in Indonesia between 1965-66. It was recently awarded the 2023 George McT. Kahin Prize, given biennially to an outstanding scholar of Southeast Asian studies from any discipline.
Bachtiar Siagian (1923-2002) was an Indonesian film director and member of Lekra, a leftist cultural organization (1950-1965). He was in charge of the 3rd Afro-Asia Film Festival in Jakarta. As a filmmaker, Bachtiar anchored his cinematic realism in the social realities of the third world. Most of his films were lost due to the anti-communist violence by the New Order authoritarian regime.
Bunga Siagian is an artist, film curator, and cultural producer. Her research and artistic practice interests concern historical Afro-Asian networks, Third-World internationalism, and leftist political-cinematic commitment throughout the decolonization process in Afro-Asia. She is currently working on her long-term curatorial project Sinefo (Sinema of New Emerging Forces).
2026 BANNED FILM SERIES
The 2026 Banned Film Series is organized by Darren Byler (Associate Professor, International Studies, 911吃瓜 School for International Studies), Chris Chong Chan Fui (Assistant Professor, Film, 911吃瓜 School for the Contemporary Arts), and Joanne Leow (Associate Professor and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair of Transnational and Decolonial Humanities, 911吃瓜 Department of English).
