The Flame focuses on the environmental, human and sociopolitical impact of Indonesia’s constant deforestation

A documentary by director Arfan Sabran and producer Gita Fara, Bara (The Flame), which premiered in April this year in Switzerland, has finally made its way to local screens. At a special screening on Monday at Plaza Indonesia, Central Jakarta, Arfan said the film’s production was a long and arduous process.

“We shot in between huge forest fires and smog. It was very hard to manage the production,” he said.

The Flame follows a 77-year-old native Dayak man, Iber Djamal, during his legal battle against corporations and authorities in obtaining the rights to preserve the remaining customary forests surrounding his village on Barasak Island, Kalimantan.

Customary forests are jungles that are considered to belong to their surrounding indigenous communities.

The one-hour documentary shows how the wilderness of tropical Kalimantan forest is far less deadly than the thorny bureaucratic jungle Iber had to go through in order to preserve his people’s land and culture. The film shows scenes of Iber running through the piles of paperwork, sometimes deterred but always passionate. It also showcases footage of him walking through the lush forest – at least what’s left of it.

Iber, who met Arfan for the first time in 2014, said he was proud and happy to have his struggles documented and shown to the world.

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