Dilan 1990

The year 1990, Bandung. Milea has just arrived at the school and knows nobody. On the way a boy pulls up beside her on a motorcycle and tells her he has seen her future. That is how Dilan introduces himself. He is persistent but not crude; each day he tries something different. He sends notes, brings a strange gift on her birthday, telephones. Milea is not interested at first. Then she is. But Dilan has a life outside school; he is in a motorcycle gang and gets into fights. Milea does not want it and neither of them gives way. Fajar Bustomi and Pidi Baiq direct. Iqbaal Ramadhan plays Dilan and Vanesha Prescilla plays Milea. It is an Indonesian production. The source is Pidi Baiq's novel; the writer is also one of the directors. The film took a very large result at the Indonesian box office and was the most watched domestic production of its year. Two sequels followed and it became a series. What the narrative builds is language; how Dilan speaks and the lines he says are what is most cited, and they come from the novel. Bandung in the nineties is built in detail; the clothes, the music and the order of the school carry the marks of the period. The narrative does not take the gang strand seriously and keeps the violence in the background. Its limit is structure; the story is left unfinished and ties into a sequel. Who it is for: viewers who like Indonesian films about the young and stories of first love. Who it is not for: the story does not complete, the pace is slow, and the references local.