Mythical creatures, mesmerizing images and transcendent gamelan-tinged harcore beats. In the silent, ‘cine-concert’ film Samsara (2024), visionary director Garin Nugroho turns a Balinese folktale into a truly otherworldly experience.
It is 1930s Bali. Lower-class Darta has worked in Sinta’s wealthy parents’ house as an offering maker. Having known each other since childhood, they grow more intimate and fall in love. But their love is rejected by Sinta’s family; Darta does not live up to their expectations. He feels desperate. Wandering aimlessly, he encounters a shaman who tells him about a ritual with the Monkey King; Darta could sacrifice his future child in exchange for the wealth he needs in order to marry his sweetheart. The narrative is almost Faustian, exploring the hunger to become something one is not, and the boundaries one is willing to cross to achieve it.
Samsara is a one-of-a-kind film, in which Nugroho draws on 1920s German black-and-white films and wayang kulit, the traditional Indonesian shadow puppetry. Key to the film is its unforgettable soundtrack, for which composer and gamelan master Wayan Sudirana and Bali-based duo Gabber Modus Operandi joined forces. Their mixture of industrial hardcore music, hazy noise and traditional elements transports the story about a man entangled in dark rituals to new heights.
No, the soundtrack won’t be live this time, but it will feel like it is. -Nienke
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