APM - Asian Project Market

 

Back to list IBUKU (aka The Wasted Land)

Director’s Profile

Eddie Cahyono was born in Jogjakarta, where he graduated from the School of Recorded Media at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts. After establishing Fourcolours Films in 2001, with three other filmmakers, he began making shorts - Between Past and Present (2001), Bedjo Van Derlaak (2003), and Road of Memories (2007) - which won many awards.
In 2010, he directed his first feature-length film, Cewek Saweran (2011). In 2014, his second film, Siti (2014) won Best Performance Award at the 2014 Singapore International Film Festival, and Best Screenplay at the 2015 Shanghai International Film Festival. The film was also shown at various film festivals, such as the 2015 International Film Festival Rotterdam, as well as in competition section at the 2015 Udine Far East Film Festival, and the 2015 Taipei Film Festival. The Wasted Land will be his third feature film.

Synopsis

Sumiati, 58 years old, lives alone in the Jogjakarta countryside. Her daughter, Sumarah, is working in China, far from her drunken gambler of a husband, who refuses to grant her a divorce. One morning, an official letter is delivered to Sumiati saying that Sumarah was sentenced to death in China over a year ago. Sumiati rushes to see the head of her village, Djatmiko, for help. Due to the end of her working contract in Hong Kong, Sumarah is obliged to work in more underground places; a club in Macau, a plantation in Guangzhou. But, when her employer refuses to pay her, she’s left with nothing and has to go back to Indonesia. A friend helps Sumarah buy a plane ticket and, in return, she is to carry back a bag. At the airport, Sumarah is arrested for drug trafficking. Sumiati must try everything she can to see her daughter one last time! She sells the only land she has to Djatmiko, and asks a girl from the village to help her in the long process of leaving Indonesia for China. Meanwhile, Sumarah, lost and scared, is brought to a cell on death row. She calls out for her mother, but is in China and is alone. In Jakarta, Sumiati now has everything she needs to travel to China as a migrant worker. She gets on a plane. In jail, Sumarah eats her last meal. The execution is close.

Achievements

2026 Busan International Film Festival - In Competition

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