Bachtiar Siagian was arguably the most prominent leftist film maker and theorist during the early years of Indonesia's national cinema. He wrote and directed 13 films from 1955-1965, making him one of the most prolific indigenous Indonesian filmmakers of the era. However, he and his work were targeted by Suharto's anti-communist purge of 1966. He was imprisoned without trial for 12 years and all of his work was destroyed. Only in recent years have prints of some of his films…
