Feature debut of Spanish-born Alvaro Gurrea, who has however, spent a large part of his latest years in Indonesia, “Ancient Soul” is an unusual hybrid of docufiction, which focuses on highlighting the multicultural, multireligious aspect of the country, both in the remote rural areas, and in the urban centers.
The film focuses on Yono, who works for a meagre pay in a rather dangerous job, extracting sulphur from the crater of the Kawah Ijen volcano, which, as the movie shows, is also a popular tourist attraction. One day, totally unexpectedly, his wife Oliv leaves him, while a bit later, his mother falls ill. In his efforts to bring back the former and cure the latter, Yono approaches different people and experiences the doctrines of three different belief systems (religions if you prefer): Islam, Hindu animism, and technocapitalism.
Alvaro Gurrea creates a rather unusual narrative, where space and time are not exactly defined, with his repetitive, episodic approach adding even more to the sense of disorientation of what is exactly happening. In that fashion, the film can be perceived as a documentary, due to its permeating realism and frequent, actual footage of rituals and the life in the areas the story takes place in, but, at the same time, the main story is highly fictional, essentially ignoring all the “rules” of the documentary. Furthermore, the whole movie seems to be permeated by a deadpan kind of ironic/black humor, as the various prayers and rituals do not fulfill their purpose, the cryptocoins are proven a scam, and the tourists that come to take photographs in a place where the workers face grave dangers due to the sulphur they inhale everyday, eloquently highlight. Lastly, the meta concept of a film within a film is also present here, if briefly, cementing the overall diversity.
Apart from the rather intriguing context, the movie also thrives due to Gurrea's own cinematography, who presents a plethora of images of extreme beauty, through the long shots in the mountainous, deeply forested areas, the ritualistic madness in the documentary-like footage, of a style that reminds of Caravaggio in various rural interiors, and most of all, the majestically yellow-colored ones in the sulphur mines. The art-house style framing in the urban scenes, particularly the ones in the cafes, concludes an effort that could be taught in film schools, both for its quality and its diversity.
The non-actors in the film, starting with Aris Munandar as Yono, function well within the narrative, adding to the realistic aspect of the movie through their naturalistic performances.
The sole major fault of the movie seems to lie with its editing, with Manuel Munoz Rivas implementing a pace that can be too slow at times, to the point that title ends up being almost exclusively addressed to art-house fans, despite its genre diversity.
Despite this issue, however, “Ancient Soul” emerges as an artful and quite intriguing production, with its comments and visual approach being truly top-notch.
