A couple sits across from each other in a park. They share questions and stories about their lives in the land, far from home, hundreds of kilometers away from their homeland. From simple questions about graduations and the latest final assignments, and other subtler stories. Built through poetic narratives in Javanese, these stories flow with warmth and intensity. In the meantime, Indonesian poems are delivered with quiet sincerity, unburdened by performance.
Taman-Taman (Yo Hen So, 2024) brings us to witness and feel the life in Taman Tainan (Taiwan), especially after the sun goes down, closely. Through the two protagonists who become central points in this documentary, stories about the lives of Indonesian migrant workers are narrated. Life experiences and meeting with others–sharing the same fate but not the same burden–are woven together into a single cohesive story.
Asri Jalal and Hasan Basri Maulana Firmansah, the two main protagonists in this documentary, promise to meet each other every night in Tainan Park. Both are doctoral students and migrant workers from Indonesia who became friends after participating in a poet audition for a film. This film.
Reflexively, Taman-Taman brings us to the tension of an immersive space that mixes the reality and technicalities of audiovisual recording in good harmony. Behind-the-scenes footage and the film’s creative process dissolve into the intimate and heart-to-heart conversations between two actors, where the stories are not always good. Various sounds of nature, including bird chirping, wind rustling, and other ambient noises, captured by recording devices, help build the atmosphere. Even where reality collides with the performative nature of cinema.
Through poems read, stories of romance are shared. The memories of Asri, as a writer, are beautifully told in Taman-Taman. According to him, the romance of the workers should be shared in a poetic frame. “The romance of the workers is more complex than the romance of the elite in luxury apartments,” she says.
Thousands of kilometres away from Indonesia, distance becomes the riverhead of longing for home. Through this documentary, we can see migrant workers sitting together, associating, and sharing their stories. Close and warm. Gamelan langgam (traditional songs) and the beat of jatilan become an intense background music signaling the origin of the migrant worker, who is mostly from Java. As the day is getting darker, in Taman Tainan, rows of children are practicing pencak silat. We can hear a very local name, which you can tell is from Indonesia, PSHT Pusat Madiun. “Los kabeh!” (You’re done!) they shouted as they ran across the bridge.
Because he met Asri several times, Hasan offered another medium to retell the story they captured. It is Radio Yinni, a radio platform, allowing people to retell their stories, only from the park, and only be heard from the park through the speakers there. The two then act as if they are the broadcasters, telling the stories.
Thousands of kilometers later, returning home is a dream and a longing for migrant workers overseas. And meeting with others in a park becomes a necessity just to remember the feeling of coming home. After a full-time job overseas, there is a story that deserves to be heard religiously. (Ahmad Radhitya Alam) (Ed. Vanis/Trans. Shafira Rahmasari)
Film Details
Taman-Taman (Park)
SO Yo Hen | 101 min | 2024 | Taiwan
In Competition for International Feature-Length Documentary
Festival Film Dokumenter 2025
