Garuda Power : The Spirit Within

A Feature film of

Bastian Meiressonne

Produced by

Shaya Productions

Production year2014

Runtime1 h 17 min

Synopsis

A documentary exploring the history of Indonesian action films from the birth of the local film industry in the 1920 and ’30s, its heydays of the ’70s, its decline in the early to mid-’90s to its resurgence in a new generation after the nation’s democratization in 1998. The film is based on extensive research, archival material and frank interviews. For Korean audiences, who share the experience of colonialism, dictatorship and democratization, the influence of Japanese, Hong Kong and Hollywood cinema of the period as well as identical film censorship, film import quotas, and Hollywood studio direct distribution policies, this film will be a significant opportunity to observe and compare the intersecting points of both countries’ film histories from a transnational point-of-view. The most interesting aspect of Indonesia’s action film history is its rise and establishment of comic book-to-film adaptations as a tradition during the ’70s. To prove the strong comic book influence on its action film industry, the film makes various visual attempts at displaying actual footage rendered in comic book style in the background of interviews.