Synopsis
Indonesian artist, scholar, and filmmaker Timoteus Anggawan Kusno is renowned for his powerful interventions, using striking visuals to reinterpret his homeland’s cultural traditions. With Afterlives, he once again challenges colonial narratives of history.
The film opens with piercing screams and vivid bursts of color as Jathilan, a Javanese ritual war dance, unfolds. Men on woven bamboo horses enter a trance, warding off malevolent spirits. Rhythmic editing reveals and dissolves colonial-era archives, giving way to performances where the Javan tiger, once ritually slain, symbolically returns. In the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, a reimagined colonial sculpture now stands, reclaiming space from Dutch East Indies governors general.
The film opens with piercing screams and vivid bursts of color as Jathilan, a Javanese ritual war dance, unfolds. Men on woven bamboo horses enter a trance, warding off malevolent spirits. Rhythmic editing reveals and dissolves colonial-era archives, giving way to performances where the Javan tiger, once ritually slain, symbolically returns. In the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, a reimagined colonial sculpture now stands, reclaiming space from Dutch East Indies governors general.
Gallery
