Jalan Raya Pos - The Great Post Road

 

 

Script : Bernie IJdisDirector: Bernie IJdis
Camera: Stef Tijdink
Sound : Piotr van Dijk, Bert Koops
Editing: Emile Bensdorp, Dannniel Danniel
Producer: Pieter van Huystee Film & TV
Length: 155 minutes
Format: 16 mm/Beta SP /VHS
First screening: 1996
Sales: Fortuna Films
Prinsengracht 634 A
Amsterdam

 

Jalan Raya Pos tells the story of the written Pramudya Ananta Toer, one of today's most important Asian writers, and of a road. The Great Post Road. In doing so, it tells the thousand kilometre road through the heart of Java. It was laid in the early 19th century by the Dutch. At the time, the construction cost many lives among the 'little' people forced to work on it.

Pramudya Ananta Toer (1925) has written an essay about the Great post road especially for this film and in the face of great obstacles. Pramudya is an ex-political prisoner and is still restricted in his freedom of movement. The film-makers function as his ears and eyes during their journey along the Post Road, a journey he himself was unable to make.

The Great Post Road is a road movie that reveals the contradictions and also the similarities between Indonesia past en present. It is also a portrait of Pramudya in which the bleakness of his situation becomes apparent as the film progresses.