To say that 2021 has been a tough year is an understatement.

From reports of sexual violence to the ongoing pandemic, the country is still seeing its fair share of tough moments even as 2022 arrives.

With that being said, there were also many moments that warmed the heart – from badminton glory to people helping each other in the face of adversity. We take a look at the kindest moments 2021 had to offer. 

Olympic victories

When veteran shuttler Greysia Polii, 33, and partner Apriyani Rahayu, 23, won gold medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza in Tokyo, the Indonesian contingent breathed a sigh of relief.

Greysia and Apriyani's victory sealed the only gold won by Indonesia at the latest Summer Olympics. Fellow shuttler Anthony Sinisuka Ginting won the bronze medal in the men’s singles event. In addition, Indonesia's weightlifters triumphed with Eko Yuli Irawan securing the silver in the men’s 61 kg event while Rahmat Erwin Abdullah and Windy Cantika Aisah won bronze medals in the men’s 73 kg event and women’s 49 kg respectively.

What makes the victory of both Greysia and Apriyani even sweeter is the fact that Indonesian women’s doubles teams had never won an Olympic medal prior to the 2020 Olympics. With their success, Indonesia became only the second country after China to have won all five disciplines of the Olympic badminton events.

While Greysia and Apriyani are among the forces to be reckoned with at the women’s doubles competition, their gold medals were a bit of a surprise considering they were not seeded. Both Greysia and Apriyani exceeded expectations by being undefeated from the group stage to elimination rounds. They defeated Chinese pair Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan, seeded second, in straight sets to secure gold medals.

Multiple Indonesian movies receive global nominations, awards and recognition 

In 2021, Indonesia saw some of its movies compete in various festivals throughout the year and won prizes.

One of the country’s filmmakers, Edwin, co-wrote Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (Indonesian: Seperti Dendam, Rindu Harus Dibayar Tuntas) with renowned writer Eka Kurniawan. The black comedy action-drama film is based on Eka’s best-selling book of the same name and directed by Edwin himself.

The film premiered globally at the 74^th Locarno Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland in August and won the Golden Leopard prize for best picture. Eka’s novel is known for its layered cultural references, intricate storytelling and incessant tempo, and the movie has been commended for managing to translate these aspects onto the silver screen.

Sweet revenge: Palari Film producers Meiske Taurisia (second left), Edwin, and Muhammad Zaidy (far right) during the development of 'Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash', an adaptation from a novel of the same name written by Eka Kurniawan (second right). (Courtesy of Palari Films) (Personal collection/Courtesy of Palari Films)

Another movie worth mentioning is Photocopier (Indonesian: Penyalin Cahaya) – a crime mystery drama film directed by Wregas Bhanuteja. Co-written with Henricus Pria, Wregas’s feature-length directorial debut follows a story about a young woman who, with the help of a childhood friend, seeks the truth about the events at a college party that leaves her reputation tainted following a blackout.

Photocopier premiered at the 26^th Busan International Film Festival in October 2021 and will be released on January 13, 2022, on streaming giant Neflix.

In September 2021, Yuni premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival and won the Platform Prize competition. Written and directed by Kamila Andini, the coming-of-age film follows a bright young student whose literature teacher proposes to her. It is her third marriage proposal and the young girl (played by Arawinda Kirana) is faced with the idea that, after turning down two previous proposals, she cannot reject this one as it is believed that it can bring bad luck.

Yuni is a coming-of-age film that talks about the issue of child marriage – something that Indonesia is struggling with to this date. According to data from the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), child marriage has increased in 18 provinces, especially in South Kalimantan, Jambi and West Papua.

Yuni was selected as the country’s entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94^th Academy Awards. Although it ended up not being shortlisted, it is worth noting that Yuni has been commended for having been able to talk about gender issues and power imbalances without coming off as lecturing.

The arrival of Yuni as a film that has been chosen to represent Indonesia at such prestigious awards is timely considering the nation has been seeing increasing reports of rape and sexual violence against women in the past year.

Recognition of young novelist Jesse Q. Sutanto’s 'Dial A for Aunties'

Funny murder: Dial A For Aunties is Chinese-Indonesian author Jesse Q. Sutanto's critically-acclaimed debut novel. (Courtesy of Michael Hart) (Personal collection/Courtesy of Michael Hart)

Indonesian writer Jesse Q. Sutanto won the 2021 Comedy Women in Print Prize (CWIP) for her ninth novel Dial A for Aunties – which has been described as "Crazy Rich Asians meets Weekend at Bernie’s". The book tells a story about a young woman from a Chinese-Indonesian family who accidentally kills her blind date. She is then helped by her mother and nosy aunties to cover up the dead body amid a lavish wedding.

The book is already scheduled for an on-screen adaptation by Netflix.

Triumph of young guns in the global field of math

The country’s young mathematicians brought home 15 medals during the International Mathematics Competition (IMC) in Bulgaria in August. In total, Indonesia won three gold medals as well as six silvers and six bronzes.

According to a social media account of the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry, the country was represented by 11 college students who were selected through a national science competition in 2020 as well as 14 others who entered the IMC independently. The IMC itself saw 591 competitors from 54 different countries.

Bright minds: The young mathematicians who competed and won competition abroad (Courtesy of Indonesia's Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology) (Archive/Courtesy of Indonesia's Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology)

The gold medalists included Hopein Christofen Tang and Muhammad Alif Aqsha of Bandung Institute of Technology as well as Andry Wijaya of the University of Indonesia. The silver medalists included Kelvin Tenata of the University of Indonesia and Akeyla Pradia Naufal, Aditya Dwiyanto and Reynald Saputra of Bandung Institute of Technology as well as Naelufa Syifna WM and Waffiq Maaroja of Gadjah Mada University. The bronze medalists included Muhammad Reza Ardhana of Bogor Agriculture University, Syaifullah Hi Nurdin of Hasanuddin University, Muh. Fadlan of Gadjah Mada University, Alvian Alif H. of Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Nabil Mahatir of the University of Indonesian Education and Rofiud Darojad of Malang University.

NFT crowdfunding for Semeru victims

Stories of Indonesians helping each other in the face of adversity have colored daily life throughout the pandemic.

The latest one is an initiative from several artists to help the victims of the eruption of Semeru, Java’s highest mountain, through non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a digital asset stored on the blockchain, which has become popular among art aficionados and artists alike.

Faizal Rochman said his community, Sewon NFT Club, which was founded in August 2021 as an umbrella for NFTs and arts, organized an NFT crowdfunding drive from Dec. 10 to 18 under the hashtag #TezosForSemeru. Contributing artists shared their arts that could be purchased with NFTs and the proceeds will go to victims of the volcanic eruptions.

As of Dec. 17, they had collected 689 tezos (a cryptocurrency) worth Rp 41,932,280 (US$2,934).