A short, simple, yet tenderly crafted story of an online taxi driver who willingly listens and answers to his passengers.

Why It’s Worth Watching

Dengar offers a relaxing story of human’s worry over choices. Though the problem seems cliche, how the film concludes and delivers it is enough to mesmerize the audiences.

The Calm, Big-hearted Driver

Premiered on November 3rd 2019, Dengar (=Listen) has marked itself as the first movie made within the Youtube channel, Menjadi Manusia. First joined on April 10th 2018 and with a total of 381K subscribers, the social-platform channel has been known for its varied content concerning the perspective of life, mental health, and social issues.

The short film alone is the first collaboration between Menjadi Manusia and FREELENS Studio. Dengar sums the fifth mini-series project ‘Unseen Scene’ from the video company, although it is exclusively published on Menjadi Manusia channel.

Dengar tells the mundane life of Joni (Rangga Andhika) who makes the living by becoming an online taxi driver. The story goes from the shots of him taking some passengers with different personalities and leads to the last passenger, Nina⁣⁣ (Mirsha Azahra). From there the climax of the parable begins to unfold.

Truthfully, the plot isn’t meant to be a tear-jerker. Nina, who recently got rejected from a job interview, takes the online ride and slowly opens up her own conundrum to Joni. Yes, the plot is as simple as that. Added to that, you might conclude this film as amateurishly produced. There isn’t much variation of cinematography and the casts feel kind of stiff since they don’t have many experiences as an actor/actress.

Despite the facts, the director Gani Aris Nurhakim develops the story into a good ten minutes film in an adequate manner. He delivers a major plot where the two characters interact then smoothly brings the resolution, while at the same time, intertwining it to the opening act and ends it with a sweet closure. That’s quite fascinating although the story is delivered in such a short amount of time.

Dengar does not present you with a top-notch, grandiose quality film like produced by big companies. Yet, there’s something refreshing about the brief ride story that hints you the feeling of ease and gratitude.

Quote

“Intinya sih menurut saya dasar dari komunikasi itu ada yang mau berbicara dan mendengarkan.”

“The thing is, communication perfectly works when one is willing to talk while another listens.”

Where to watch: