Turang

Set in an indigenous Karo community in Indonesia, Bachtiar Siagian’s long-lost 1958 film Turang (Comrade) highlights the crucial role of ordinary people in the struggle against authoritarian and colonial powers. Rusli, a people’s militia leader, is injured in a struggle with Dutch troops and is hidden by his comrades in a Seberaya village under Dutch command. Following the everyday lives of the village’s inhabitants, their acts of solidarity with the freedom fighters, Rusli's romance with the village chief's daughter Tipi, and conflict between the revolutionaries and Dutch troops, Turang is a call to restore sovereignty and independence to the Indonesian people. 

With an introduction from Bunga Siagian, cultural producer, researcher, and daughter of Bachtiar Siagian, the screening presents the restored film as an act of narrative reclamation and an archive of decolonisation, created at a time of radical political upheaval in the country of its creation. This screening of Turang is curated by May Adadol Ingawanij with Ibraaz in conversation with the final chapter of Taring Padi’s Rakyat Pasti Menang at Ibraaz London, which runs until 22 November, 2026.

Doors open at 2.30pm; event starts at 3pm and ends at 5pm.

Image credit: still from Turang, Bachtiar Siagian, 1958.