A film focusing on the world of the stock market and what goes on around it is new for the Indonesian film industry.

Sang Pialang (The Broker) tries to encapsulate this fresh theme for local cinema, but with the usual approach to the story. The 114-minute drama tells a story of friendship, love and ambition in a Wall Street-themed manner.

Sang Pialang, directed by Asad Amar and written by Anggoro Santoro, tells of ambition and greed born out of jealousy, and that they can lead to destruction, while friendship can stay strong even though it is sometimes shaky.

Kevin (Christian Sugiono), a wealthy broker working for a firm owned by his dad, has to face the fact that his sales aren’t as good as his best friend who works at the same firm. With the head equity sales position opening at the firm, competition to achieve the highest sales is taken way too seriously by Kevin. He is willing to do anything to defeat his best friend, Mahesa (Abimana Aryasatya).

Mahesa, a broker who plays by the rules and is a simple man, is faced with a different problem. His father disapproves of his work, considering being a broker misleading and wanting his son to be an architect. But Mahesa is doing well as a broker and does not plan to leave his job. He is a down-to-earth man who has a great relationship with his group of friends, especially Analea (Kamidia Radisti).

The group, consisting of Mahesa, Kevin, Analea, Gilang (Alblen Fabe) and Irfan (Mario Irwinsyah), likes to spend their time at Jakarta’s cafés and nightclubs, and all work as brokers. The friendship is tight until it is tested.

The competition on the job and with the girl heats up. Kevin seems to be leading in both fields while Mahesa is focused on obtaining his father’s trust. Conflicts slowly start to arise with Kevin getting more (a new apartment, new clients) and Mahesa getting less (has to sell his car, father gets sick).

As the movie goes on it is clear Mahesa is the one to root for and Kevin is the one to hate. While Analea is the beauty, Gilang and Irfan are the humor in the tense drama of the stock market.

The feel of stock market excitement with up-and-down graphics around the investments is clearly new in Indonesian film. The tense moments last about half the movie, and are a thrill in a film that depicts so much scandal, and those moments felt fresh and exhilarating.

However, the story revolves around friendship and a love triangle that make it clearly just another local flick. It is apparent, though, that it is a good start in approaching new themes in Indonesian film.

The lead, Abimana, previously known as Robertino, made his comeback in the 2011 movie Catatan Harian Si Boy (The Diary of Boy), and gives a great performance as a simple, good hearted character who also can keep secrets. Then there is the performance of Slamet Rahardjo as the clueless dad.

Former Miss Indonesia Kamidia is classy along the way as a young, beautiful and successful urban girl. And Christian is convincing enough in making the audience hate his character.

The portrayal of upper class society, in particular the stock market, was fresh, however the approach to the story seemed cliché. The main focus as to how friendship is hard to break and how love needs to be expressed can be seen in many films to date, and seems like the usual recipe for Indonesian films.

This made the movie look like the US film Wall Street mixed with a love and friendship recipe that results in some boredom as the film progresses.

However, the elements of ambition and greed (that were visible in Wall Street) are fascinating, especially for an Indonesian film.

Asad Amar has made a good start in his directing career by bringing together an already-set cast, and using great visuals to describe the situation and community in general, especially in illustrating Ferry Salim’s character Gustom.

Sang Pialang, about how the stock market can be dirty and at the same time a lawful way to obtain enormous amounts of cash, is entertaining for the most part and opens up new alternatives for Indonesian film themes, for filmmakers and for audiences. It can teach people about the value of safe ambition, and the dangers of greed.

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