I want to love you simply:
with words unspoken
wood into fire ceasing into ash.I want to love you simply:
with signs unstated
clouds into rain ceasing to exist.
— Sapardi Djoko Damono, “Aku Ingin” (1989, lit. “I Want”)
Talking about love could never be as simple (or as complex) as Sapardi’s thoughts poured into poetry. In Planet of Love (Ika Wulandari, 2023), love is shown in acrobatics. It walks on a thin line between life and death; dancing between loss and letting go. This film documents the life within Yayasan Lentera Surakarta, an orphanage close to a cemetery that houses children with HIV/AIDS—which often hinders people from getting close to it out of fear, furthermore hindering their sights from the love that roams in it.
In Yayasan Lentera, love becomes a pulse of a vein that beats day by day: through a glass of milk and daily doses of medication, a graphic tee with Never Ending Tresno (lit. never-ending love) written on it, and reminders for the kids to not disclose where they live when they’re at school so that they can continue coming to class. Planet of Love navigates and presents various forms of love that are far from ordinary, even within a life of simplicity.
Love shown through this film permeates into social praxis. It manifests into a “Network of Love”, an initiative that advocates for schools in several cities to be more open toward children with HIV/AIDS. Planet of Love shows us that love, too, interacts inside and through the screen, urges and surges impactful changes through the eyes that observe it, through the collective longing of a more intimate world; vulnerable, brave, and human. Maybe that is where the “bounds of love” exist: between the borders of the screen and reality, exhibition and action. Because love, so too the screen, is boundless; or if it isn’t, maybe its borders closes in when we stop believing in how films operate, sprawling into other spaces besides the screening room. (Hesty N. Tyas) (Ed. Vanis/Trans. Timmie)
Film Details
Planet of Love
Ika Wulandari | 100 min | 2025 | Indonesia
Presented as part of the Special Presentation
followed by a DOC Talk session
Festival Film Dokumenter 2025
