Sharpshooter: The film 22 Menit is inspired by the Thamrin terrorist attack in January 2016. (Ario Bayu). (Courtesy of Buttonijo Films)

In the grand scheme of things, 22 minutes might not be that long but for those who found themselves in a crisis, it might have felt like 22 hours.

The terror attacks that rocked Jakarta on Jan. 14, 2016, is one on a list of Islamist terror attacks that have haunted both the capital and Indonesia.

Yet, life in the Big Durian moved on, as Jakartans proclaimed on social media with the hashtag#KamiTidakTakut (#WeAreNotAfraid) as well as coping through the suspense with memes and humor.

22 Menit (22 Minutes), an action movie inspired by the Thamrin attacks seeks to portray the human aspect of the tragedy instead. The title itself is said to refer to the police’s claim that they regained control over the situation in 22 minutes.

The movie tells the story of Ardi (Ario Bayu), a member of the elite antiterrorism squad, who puts his life on the line to save the day and the city.

22 Menit also features other characters that are caught up in the chaos and confusion. Each has their own stories and backgrounds.

There are traffic police officer Firman (Ade Firman Hakim) in the middle of conducting a traffic stop, office boy Anas (Ence Bagus) out buying lunch, as well as private sector employees Dessy (Ardina Rasti) and Mitha (Hana Malasan) who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

22 Menit starts out with a shot of Jakarta in the morning with all the traffic and whatnot, along with the characters going about their activities, even depicting the terrorists as more humans in a megapolis of over 10 million residents.

As the first bomb in the film’s ersatz Starbucks went off, the audience is treated to a scene of pandemonium, contrasted with the prior serenity which comes off as a shock to both the audience and characters in the movie.

For every scene where a bomb goes off, 22 Menit rewinds the time to minutes before the blast, perhaps to show the various viewpoints.

Despite the movie taking place and being filmed in Thamrin, director Eugene Panji insists that 22 Menit is not a factual retelling of the attacks.

“This film is not based on a true story but it is inspired by it,” Eugene said, adding that the team reconstructed nearly 70 percent of the Thamrin incidents.

Semantics aside, or because of said semantics, 22 Menit indeed takes some artistic liberties to show action-packed scenes, such as rooftop snipers taking aim at onlookers gawking at the blast scene and an office hostage situation neutralized with a neat shot to the temple.

Curiously, even though perpetrators of the Thamrin attacks were linked to the Islamic State terrorist group, no mention was made of the terrorists’ ideology in the movie.

“I am not interested in talking about religion, [...] but anything related to humanism is important to me,” Eugene said.

“When we talk about terrorism, it is not an issue of religion or culture, but of a radical ideology where anyone else not part of them deserve to die.”

Eugene uses as examples the victims portrayed in the movie, both Muslim locals caught up in the blast, the token Caucasian man who gets a bullet to the brain for his troubles, and the police officers who had to sit in their post on a hot day and were blown up anyway

Producer Lexy Mere certainly agreed with Eugene’s stance, saying that 22 Menit has no political message.

“If you watch the movie, you will see that this a pure action movie, and that there are no terrorists or mention of the word terrorism, just as if it is a normal crime with some bad guys shooting up people
in the street and engaging in a shootout with the police,” Lexy said.

Yikes. For its entire whitewashed version of Islamic terrorism, 22 Menit can stand on its own as an action movie and its production values should be lauded as the cast and crew certainly did their research.

Ario was subjected to a boot camp and made to wear a vest weighing 9 kilograms to get into the groove
of an actual member of the elite squad, while Ade observed the mannerisms of the traffic police in Thamrin.

22 Menit also received support from the National Police, with the studio conducting research for a full year before production began.

National Police Chief Tito Karnavian even made a cameo along with his wife, being stopped by the police for not wearing a helmet while trying to get out of the ticket by saying that they are friends of the chief of police.

To sum up, 22 Menit is 75 minutes of action that should be able to give the audience what they are looking for: bullets flying everywhere and explosions galore, not unlike a typical Hollywood flick.

Just be sure to set aside the obvious hurdle of educating the public about terrorism without addressing the radical ideology of terrorism, and you’re good to go.

_________________________

22 Menit

Directors: Eugene Panji, Myrna Paramita
Writers: Husein M. Atmojo, Gunawan Raharja
Cast: Ario Bayu, Ade Firman Hakim, Ence Bagus, Ardina Rasti, Hana Malasan, Taskya Namya
Running time: 75 minutes

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