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'Tengkorak': A brilliant Indonesian science-fiction
The film is both visually stunning and simplistic without the need for expensive bombast or faux intellect.
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Skull Mountain: Tengkorak depicts the mysterious skull mountain that is at the center of the events in this film. (Courtesy of Akasacara Film & Vokasi Studios/-)
Y
ogyakartan filmmaker Yusron Fuadi’s thrilling science-fiction flick Tengkorak (Skull) is probably one of the best films to come out of Indonesia this year, maybe even in the past few years or so.
The film is both visually stunning and simplistic without the need for expensive bombast or faux intellect.
Yusron’s talent in directing, writing and acting in this film is staggering once you see him go. As a relative newcomer to feature films, the 35-year-old presents us with a film that is not just daring but layered, unpretentious and psychologically thrilling — traits that are rare in Indonesian films.
The film’s premise is simple yet presented in complex ways that at times feels too overwhelming to keep up with.
The story is mainly about the discovery of a massive skull-shaped hill in Yogyakarta after the real-life earthquake in 2006, and the efforts made by the people involved to understand what this discovery really is and what it means.
The discovery borders almost on the supernatural, but not in a spiritual way. Instead, what the film suggests is that what lies inside the site could make us reevaluate our role as humans and why we are here.
As humans, we are used to being the superior, most dominant creatures on the planet. What if something comes to take that away from us? And how do we handle that?
The story is told mainly through the eyes of actress Eka Nusa Pertiwi, who plays her role as student Ani beautifully. She shares the screen with Yos, a protestor and rebel character played by Yusron himself. Together they radiate a wonderful onscreen chemistry.
Yusron even performs so brilliantly that he deserves to win both Indonesia’s Best Actor and Best Director awards in the next Indonesian Film Festival award season.
Through his directing, Yusron outlines the political, scientific, personal and social aspects surrounding the events as well as the characters of the story very elaborately to the point that you realize that such a supernatural event is never without any one of those aspects when you put it in the scope of real life.
He also tells the story purely from the eyes of his hometown of Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta is the center of the events and all the aspects that make the city are presented intact: the natural use of Javanese language (and body language) in most of the dialog and telling the story through the city’s general outlook on life and their environment.
Not to mention the fact that the film’s production crew and cast is made up entirely of people from Gadjah Mada University (UGM), where Yusron is a vocational professor. The film was even processed at the university as well as distributed by a studio started by the university’s vocational school.
Aside from the reevaluation of human’s role on Earth, the film also tries to send the message that we as humans can only understand the world when one stops analyzing it and merely becomes aware of it around them. This spurs a crucial line in the film: “Whatever you are looking for will always be there in front of your eyes this whole time.”
Sometimes things happen just because, especially when it comes to nature and things beyond human control.
Nature is able to destroy homes and human lives whenever it wants. Nature is able to shift the physical conditions of this Earth. Through every action, nature is able to give us a little bit more to be curious about it, but warns us to be cautious and respectful when dealing with it lest we face the consequences.
The stories of the different kinds of people involved working inside the site’s facilities — from waitresses, researchers and military guards to regular people on the streets and government officials — are given equal footing.
Sometimes, it’s hard to believe Tengkorak isn’t a documentary. The way the film is framed and made, you would be forgiven if you thought these events actually happened.
The film doesn’t necessarily answer all the viewers’ questions but rather opens them up for interpretation. It keeps the audience wondering what the hell was going on.
The computer-generated effects are not amazing, but do well enough to enhance the story and never become a selling point. The cast performs excellently, the dialog is compelling and the simple cinematography naturally showcases the Yogyakarta region’s natural beauty without looking like a tourism commercial.
It is a shame though — as wonderful as the film may be, it may not have a long run at cinemas, likely due to lack of promotional hype or maybe because the tone of the film edges toward an antigovernmental (specifically antimilitary) sentiment.
Despite being one of the best Indonesian films this year, Tengkorak was released relatively quietly and screened mainly at film festivals and thus is in danger of being forgotten. And what a shame that will be.
Tengkorak is no sci-fi blockbuster, but it is better off that way. If it had been made by a big-name, big-budget studio, an enormous amount of money would’ve been spent on special effects and on popular but unsuitable cast members (not to mention an abundance of product placement), and may still only yield mediocre-at-best results that could not have held a candle to Tengkorak’s brilliance and simplicity.
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Tengkorak
(Akasacara Film & Vokasi Studios; 107 minutes)
Director: Yusron Fuadi
Cast: Yusron Fuadi, Eka Nusa Pertiwi, Guh S. Mana, Haydar Salishz
