Alternative title: Fishing Platform

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After the death of his mother, Jaya is transferred to a fishing platform in the middle of the sea. There, for the first time, he meets his father who immediately denies the fact that he has a child.

Why It’s Worth Watching

After the death of his mother, Jaya is transferred to a fishing platform in the middle of the sea. There, for the first time, he meets his father who immediately denies the fact that he has a child.

Jermal delivers a hellish portrait of underage workers who hang their fates in the middle of the sea, far from their family. It also captures an emotional relationship between a son and a father who share the same resentment toward each other. Both characters are strikingly performed by the young actor’s debut and the veteran actor who plays a totally different role from his previous movie.

A Hidden Life in The Middle of The Sea

The first time I watched the trailer, the setting of the fishing platform called jermal is not known to me or offers of much interest. Jermal that is positioned in the middle of the sea (though some would be not far from the coastline) consists of a station that functions as a workplace and a mess, and at least one special hut for the supervisor or the owner. The platform that is sustained with many big, round pillars is poorly built. It is made from plain woods and iron that covers most of the rooms above.

The scenery does not reflect much attraction and its ordinariness merges with the vast, monotonous colors of the sky and the sea. Some people would be seen going back and forth there, and soon you just perceive them as fishermen doing their mundane tasks. Ironically, as one of the largest maritime countries, the fisherman in Indonesia doesn’t earn that much money and would not be considered a decent job. Perhaps, all of that aspects are the reasons why I didn’t give the platform a closer look.

Nevertheless, there are two things that pique my interest in this movie: the veteran actor Didi Petet who plays a sinister, sulking man named Johar and the mystique vibe this character puts, both on his relationship with his son Jaya (Iqbal S. Manurung) and the place he lives in. Yet, again, Jermal is the kind of movie that can cast this powerful emotion, even though it is set in an ordinary setting.

Aside from serving an interesting story and plenty of great actors, we get a glimpse of the reality that resides inside the jermal. The movie informs a social phenomenon of underage working in a remote area with a little supervision. Unfortunately, this practice still exists and often slips under the authorities’ radar. Most children that end up working in jermal come from underprivileged families. Thereby, they cannot continue their education nor have any other skills to support their lives.

These children are trapped in this condition and jermal becomes the means to survive among the limited options. To add salt to injury, the children who work on the remote fishing platform, and other adult workers, are only permitted to leave after three months. We can only imagine the discomfort of knowing that they have to live far from their family and have to confront their own fear living in the midst of the sea’s unpredictable nature.

When Jaya arrives in jermal, we immediately witness how bad the place is. The jermal shot in the film is actually a real jermal. The crews want to portrait the scenes as true as it is, and it takes an enormous effort, taking a 40 minutes trip by a boat without the certainty of the cruel nature of the sea.

Jaya, Bandi (Yayu Unru), and Johar, as well as the rest’s surprisingly first performances in film, had done great jobs in bringing the depth of the story. It hits much of my guts just to think of spending the rest of my childhood or adolescence living in the middle of nowhere, for the sake of earning money that might not be enough when I come back to my family. It hits much of my guts just to think of seeing the opportunity of learning new things is blown away because you have to make a little sum of money in the most unfortunate place for your average age.

Quote

“Kita pergi. Tempat kita bukan di sini.“

“We’re leaving. We’re not belong here.”

A striking story of life amid the sea with spectacle characters that also mirror the blue of the sea

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