Burbank, CA (The Hollywood Times) 8/4/26 – Featured at this year’s Burbank International Film Festival is an Indonesian crime thriller Bandit, directed by Brian L. Tan and written by Husein M. Atmodjo. It screens on Wednesday, August 5, 9:00 pm, at the AMC Burbank 16, Theatre 4, 125 E Palm Ave, Burbank, CA 91502. Indonesia produces many action-packed thrillers with directors like Timo Tjahjanto, Kimo Stamboel, and Joko Anwar – with films like The Raid: Redemption, The Nights Comes for Us, and Borderless Fog. Indonesian crime films are generally high-energy, action-packed adventures, but Bandit is more of a slow-burn with a focus on individual characters. This gritty crime thriller just won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at Dances with Films in Hollywood.
The film opens with a grisly scene of a battered man on the bridge being hunted down by a killer – a scene that will eventually make sense late in the film. The focus shifts to Gatra (Wafda Saifan), a father-to-be and his very pregnant wife Maya (Claresta Taufan) who are struggling because Gatra has lost his job at a questionable printing house with connections to the criminal world. Although the couple seem to be very much in love, Maya has had a previous miscarriage and she is experiencing severe bleeding. This forces Gatra to take her to the hospital for help. Gatra does not have enough money to pay for the medicines that Maya needs, so in his desperation, he decides to seek out work anywhere.
The story is set in Bali, which is the Hindu-dominant island of otherwise Muslim Indonesia. Maya is a native of Bali and speaks that language to her elderly father, who comes to check up on her. Gatra is from Jakarta and a very different cultural background but with his former buddies at the printing house, they often were found to be drinking alcohol and gambling. Supposedly Gatra gave up alcohol and is avoiding the criminal elements in Bali. But he is desperate for money for his sick wife and hopefully future child. So, he goes off to find an old friend Tiar (Ray Sungkono) who is still connected to some low-life criminal types. They start drinking and have a slight altercation with some others in the bar and eventually walk back towards Gatra’s home because he is worried about Maya. The central emotional arc of the film is about protecting one’s family – something with which many audience members will be able to sympathize.
Along the way, they spot a seemingly abandoned Mercedes G-Wagon, a very expensive sport ultility vehicle, and suddenly think about stealing it and selling it for quick cash. Little do they know that the owner Beni just left the vehicle by the side of the road with a shovel to do something. Gatra and Tiar hop in the Mercedes G-Wagon, not realizing that it has manual transmission. Starting up the G-Wagon, suddenly they are frightened by the appearance of the vehicle’s owner threatening them. Gatra as the driver puts the G-Wagon is reverse and accidentally hit the man, who lies unconscious or dead on the ground. Panicking Gatra and Tiar rush down the road as fast as possible in the direction of Denpasar, the capital and touristic center of Bali, with its notable Hindu-themed monuments and temples and fancy urban landscaping. They see in the car a cell phone of the owner and fear that they could be tracked down as to their location.
The rest of the story revolves around the stolen Mercedes G-Wagon. Gatra and Tiar are planning to somehow sell the stolen vehicle to dealer in stolen cars, and driving though the deserted heart of the city, hear the cell ring and a voice on the other side. That is the voice of Beni (Teuku Rifnu Wikana) who is apparently not dead but recovered consciousness after his Mercedes G-Wagon was stolen. Beni, who is actually a corrupt police investigator, finds a way to steal a motor scooter and heads to Denpasar – to find Gatra and Tiar, promising to kill them by dawn.
Meanwhile, Gatra and Tiar are driving through a deserted night landscape of urban Denpasar and stop to see what is in the back of the G-Wagon. They are shocked to discover a dead body wrapped up for burial, as well as a briefcase of financial documents and a gun in the glove compartment. They have to get rid of the dead body so they drive out into the countryside to bury the body without knowing who is it. Then they head to a unscrupulous auto body shop owner by Hamann (Bukie B. Mansyur), who immediately realizes that the G-Wagon has been stolen from none other than the police investigator Beni. He knows the history of the vehicle and that it was a bribe to Beni by a criminal gangster. So he throws out Gatra and Tiar and they drive off, uncertain what to do. They find out that Beni is in hot pursuit of them after Beni shows up at Hamann’s auto shop.
Beni is dead set on vengeance and it is all because of the financial documents in the briefcase left in the G-Wagon. They return to the the place that they buried the body of the dead man and find his wallet and phone. Not they know who was the man killed at the opening of the film. Running out of options, Tiar figures out that the one person who might help them is Suroto (Kiki Narendra) who is a major criminal gangster who own a swanky nightclub in the city and deals in all kinds of criminal enterprises.
Inside the Suroto’s nightclub, Gatra causes a major scene, in a big fight with the club security with visceral impact. This results in Gatra being dragged in front of Suroto who has no patience with his behavior. But suddenly Tiar arrives with a gun and the cell phone of the dead man, and the story shifts again. Vengeance dominates the last part of the film and the pacing is swift. The nightclub scene pulls out all the stops by cameraman Austin Ahlberg, who was cinematographer for Tan’s previous TV movie Murder Below Deck (2024), also shot in Bali.
None of the actors in the cast are names that will be familiar to American audiences, but they all have impressive resumes in their home country of Indonesia. The two leads, Wafda Saifan and Roy Sungkono, are both excellent. Their chemistry together as friends is excellent, and Saifan, in particular, brings a lot of emotional depth to his role. Meanwhile, as the villain, Teuku Rifnu Wikana is quite good, playing the character with a lot more restraint and less broad strokes than one might expect from an independent crime thriller like this.
Bandit is a competently made thriller with a focus on characterization without the usual excesses of violence in protracted fight scenes. That originality is refreshing in an Indonesian crime thriller and we should look forward for more interesting work from Brian L. Tan in the future.
Bandit screens as part of the Burbank International Film Festival on Wednesday, August 5, at 9:00 pm at AMC Burbank 16, Theatre 4,125 E Palm Ave, Burbank, CA 91502. For tickets, go to: https://burbankinternationalfilmfestival.eventive.org/films/6a28e068daa724742d2762aa.
