Siapa Dia

A jaded movie star produces a century-spanning romantic musical that doubles as a chronicle of Indonesian political and film history. After Whispers in the Dabbas (IFFR 2025), Garin Nugroho returns to the festival, this time carrying songs in a suitcase.

“Everything is about love, music and dance,” remarks a character in Siapa Dia. In this ambitious new work, IFFR veteran filmmaker Garin Nugroho fuses romantic, political and film history into a flamboyant, infectiously upbeat musical that is at once educational and edifying.

Bored with his career, popular movie star Layar (Nicholas Saputra) retreats to his hometown to work on something fresh and original. There, a suitcase full of family memories gives Layar a bright idea: a romantic musical spanning three generations, a tumultuous century and a magical medium. The narrative moves across Indonesia’s modern history, from the colonial era to the reformation, through repeated cycles of optimism and disillusionment, love and heartbreak. In parallel, we witness the evolution of Indonesian cinema’s public role, its grip on popular imagination and the curbing of its possibilities through censorship.

Filled wall-to-wall with effervescent musical numbers in a range of genres, Siapa Dia is a loving tribute to Indonesian film history, presented without nostalgia, but with a keen sense of cinema’s potential for joy and freedom.

– Srikanth Srinivasan

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