Foxtrot Six

Although horror genre usually dominates Indonesian film industry, there are a few drama, action, and thriller that are often one of a kind. For foreign audiences, The Raid is quite familiar and dubbed as one of successful Indonesian action film. However, in its home country, action isn’t quite favored, let alone if it brings rather a controversial anecdote of the country. This is what happens to Foxtrot Six, a quite ambitious film that has dystopian action genre. This film was released back in 2019 starring Indonesian top actors and actress. Though it is a debut work for Randy Korompis, Mario Kassar, quite a name in Hollywood was one of the the producers in the film. So, it’s not as horrible as other makes it seems. This film is also considered one of the most expensive Indonesian film and has quite good CGI. Surely, do not expect Hollywood tier production but a hybrid work between the two creates its own flair. Only this early of this year, this film was available on Netflix.

The movie revolves around the idea that the world has reached 8 billion people and is going through food scarcity problem. Indonesia was not excluded and with more poverty, there is a group attempting to monopolize the situation through their policies. They first started a revolution and a coup d’etat. They are backed by a paramilitary called GERRAM.

Fast forward to 11 years later, one day, A former marine turned congressman, Angga(Oka Antara) proposed an idea to the group whose party is called “PIRANAS”. He proposed an off-the book mission to safe the party’s face and gaining more trust from the hungry people outside their main compound. One nigh, as was outside meeting a high ranking paramilitary person from Gerram, called Wisnu (Edward Akbar), Angga was kidnapped by a henchmen led by mysterious man who later was called Spec (Chicco Jerikho). Angga was then led into the hidden location of The reformist who is against Piranas and what they believed in. Inside those reformist, there’s a former president who was the object of the coup d'etat 11 years ago and also Sari, former journalist, co-founder of the reformist who is actually Angga’s past love interest. Things got even more intense when Angga was made enemy of the state. He eventually decided to contact his other former marine friends to fight GERRAM and reveal the dirty operation from PIRANAS.

First off, I have personally never watched Indonesian dystopian science fiction action. That was why, I was quite surprised. It felt like an ambitious production but also one step ahead that they can finally produce dystopian film. You can expect to see gundam-like suits, anti-cloaking wear, transparent screens and a lot more high-tech that looks like a typical Hollywood production. Although it has a good cinematography and CGI that are quite acceptable, its story was quite complex but also too simplistic. So, once again it falls into similar problem as typical Hollywood action films.

When you’re watching it as Indonesian, you can connect some references of the hidden message in the film. But watching it as an outsider, I reckon it was just a plain story without depth of its character development. Even Spec, a mysterious man turned out to be something that only up to us to decide his involvement in the whole ordeal. This can only be deduced if you're quite political but if not, it's going to be just there. Beside, it's also located around post-scene so, if you're an impatient audience, Spec will remain a mysterious character.

Unlike a lot of non-Hollywood production that uses script in its original language, this film uses English. Though the actors and actress have good English but some of the banter and the conversation didn’t feel natural. It was quite strange and I found it difficult to enjoy their conversation. I reckon, they already did their best and some of them felt a lot more natural but some was just forced. Still despite its cons, I enjoy the film as it was one of Indonesian dystopian film and the setting isn’t really far off. It really makes you ponder, What would happen once the world population reaches 8 billion? Considering in the film uses 2019 and 11 years in the future, I would have only been 33 and it's such an odd situation to think about. Anyhow, If you’re up to watching a foreign film, make sure to check out foxtrot six.