With eyes fixed on his television screen, Adi Rukun, the main character followed by documentary maker Joshua Oppenheimer in his new film, The Look Of Silence, seems to face a mirror that resurrects a nightmarish past. In the footage that he is watching, two old men sit by the bank of the Snake … [Read more...]
Writings
The murder of Affan Kurniawan
Affan Kurniawan, a twenty-one-year-old motorcycle taxi rider, was working in Jakarta when he was struck by an armoured vehicle belonging to the Mobile Brigade Corps, an elite unit of the Indonesian National Police. The vehicle, weighing several tons, didn’t even try to avoid him; footage that … [Read more...]
This American Life
There were moments in what Garin called his American life when he felt the urge to stop himself, while walking down some familiar street, caught in the midst of a moving crowd, staring at faces, places, as if he were lost, or otherwise found. Then, with both hands tucked in his pockets, he took a … [Read more...]
Trials of fiction: We lose the battle again
A half century after the first defeat of the imagination of a short story in court, leading to the imprisonment of leading literature critic HB Jassin, we have lost a second battle against irrationality, arrogance and backwardness. Again we are witnessing the curbing of creativity that should … [Read more...]
Two new poems by Mikael Johani
chapel hill stuck a pin in your back bone haven’t you noticed chapell hill hasn’t got its own passaic* look at its spine: a spine-tingling web of fronts running thru shop-windows caribbean curry & parota shops, pawnshops selling prototypes of shark burgers pickled, shredded, chili-ed … [Read more...]