# Gie
**Gie** is a 2005 Indonesian biographical drama directed by Riri Riza, based on the diary *Catatan Seorang Demonstran* (A Demonstrant's Notes) by the Chinese-Indonesian activist and writer Soe Hok Gie (1942–1969)[1](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Gie?hl=id&id=7B9BBEFB69D5ACDEMV). It stars Nicholas Saputra as Soe Hok Gie and was produced by Mira Lesmana for Miles Films with SinemArt Pictures, opening in Indonesian cinemas on 14 July 2005[2](https://www.indonesianfilmcenter.com/filminfo/detail/3522/). The film follows Gie from his youth through the political upheaval of 1960s Indonesia, the fall of Sukarno, and the rise of Suharto's New Order, a period the festival catalog for the film calls the darkest era of Indonesian history[3](https://www.festivalfilm.id/arsip/title/gie).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Riri Riza, his fourth feature[1](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Gie?hl=id&id=7B9BBEFB69D5ACDEMV) • [4](https://fipresci.org/report/gie-the-personal-and-the-political-in-perfect-synch-by-howard-feinstein/) |
| Source | Soe Hok Gie's diary *Catatan Seorang Demonstran*, published in 1983, 14 years after his death[4](https://fipresci.org/report/gie-the-personal-and-the-political-in-perfect-synch-by-howard-feinstein/) |
| Release | Indonesia, 14 July 2005[2](https://www.indonesianfilmcenter.com/filminfo/detail/3522/) |
| Lead cast | Nicholas Saputra (Soe Hok Gie), Jonathan Mulia (young Gie), Sita Nursanti (Ira), Wulan Guritno (Sinta), Thomas Nawilis (Tan Tjin Han)[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0459327/fullcredits/) |
| Awards | Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Cinematography at the 2005 Festival Film Indonesia; Hubert Bals Fund prize at the Rotterdam International Film Festival[2](https://www.indonesianfilmcenter.com/filminfo/detail/3522/) • [6](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345731787_The_Negotiation_Between_Queer_Spectatorship_and_Queer_Text_on_Riri_Riza%27s_Soe_Hok_Gie) |
| Runtime | 147 minutes in the release version; some catalogs list 135 or 127 minutes[4](https://fipresci.org/report/gie-the-personal-and-the-political-in-perfect-synch-by-howard-feinstein/) • [7](https://catalogue.asianfilmarchive.org/document/gie/637ea8a9ce9a48759635c9b8?pos=2&v=list) • [2](https://www.indonesianfilmcenter.com/filminfo/detail/3522/) |
| Languages | Indonesian, with English and Mandarin also appearing[7](https://catalogue.asianfilmarchive.org/document/gie/637ea8a9ce9a48759635c9b8?pos=2&v=list) |
## Spoilers
### The subject
Soe Hok Gie was a Chinese-Indonesian writer and journalist, born a Catholic during the [Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies](https://www.edgepedia.org/japanese-occupation-of-the-dutch-east-indies) and educated at Canisius College and the Universitas Indonesia[8](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/2006/films/gie). As a student activist and later a history lecturer at the [University of Indonesia](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-indonesia)'s Faculty of Letters, he published critical articles in national newspapers, mostly on political and nation-building issues[9](https://repositori.kemendikdasmen.go.id/24980/1/sketches_of_asias_society_-_people%2C_culture%2C_education_and_technology__r._alpha_amirrachman%2C_2021.pdf). He refused to join any political party, putting reason above loyalty even while remaining deeply committed to politics[8](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/2006/films/gie).
The film's historical setting covers Sukarno's "guided democracy," tension between the military and the Communist Party, student demonstrations, anti-Communist riots and massacres, and the transfer of power to Suharto[4](https://fipresci.org/report/gie-the-personal-and-the-political-in-perfect-synch-by-howard-feinstein/). In the story, Gie is disillusioned when the struggle against the ruling regime produces a new dictatorship and massacres of people accused of communism, including his childhood friend Tan Tjin Han; his uncompromising idealism costs him his friends and the woman he loves, and only nature offers him refuge[2](https://www.indonesianfilmcenter.com/filminfo/detail/3522/) • [3](https://www.festivalfilm.id/arsip/title/gie).
Gie died from inhaling poisonous gases while climbing Mount Semeru, Java's highest mountain and his favorite sport. The International Film Festival Rotterdam catalog states he died on his 27th birthday[8](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/2006/films/gie), while an academic study of the film places his death one day before his twenty-seventh birthday in 1969[6](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345731787_The_Negotiation_Between_Queer_Spectatorship_and_Queer_Text_on_Riri_Riza%27s_Soe_Hok_Gie).
## Production and adaptation
Riza wrote the screenplay, and the published script records that it went through eight drafts before reaching its final form[6](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345731787_The_Negotiation_Between_Queer_Spectatorship_and_Queer_Text_on_Riri_Riza%27s_Soe_Hok_Gie). Nicholas Saputra, a German-Indonesian actor Riza had worked with before, studied old footage of Gie to prepare for the role[4](https://fipresci.org/report/gie-the-personal-and-the-political-in-perfect-synch-by-howard-feinstein/) • [8](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/2006/films/gie). Throughout the film, Saputra's voiceover quotes directly from the diaries, the text accompanying images of riots, opportunism, torture, and poverty[4](https://fipresci.org/report/gie-the-personal-and-the-political-in-perfect-synch-by-howard-feinstein/).
**Recreating 1960s Jakarta.** Because most of Jakarta had been intensively modernized, most scenes had to be shot in other towns that had escaped that modernization. Cinematographer Yudi Datau's work was described by the film critic Howard Feinstein of FIPRESCI, the international federation of film critics, as a stunningly textured recreation of Jakarta more than four decades earlier; the Indonesian Film Center notes the photography also tried to revive the color palette of 1970s Indonesian film[4](https://fipresci.org/report/gie-the-personal-and-the-political-in-perfect-synch-by-howard-feinstein/) • [2](https://www.indonesianfilmcenter.com/filminfo/detail/3522/). Thoersi Argeswara composed a soundtrack mixing indigenous songs and rock 'n roll, and Sastha Sunu edited[4](https://fipresci.org/report/gie-the-personal-and-the-political-in-perfect-synch-by-howard-feinstein/) • [7](https://catalogue.asianfilmarchive.org/document/gie/637ea8a9ce9a48759635c9b8?pos=2&v=list).
## Reception and awards
At the 2005 Festival Film Indonesia in Jakarta, Gie won Citra Awards for Best Film (producer Mira Lesmana), Best Actor (Nicholas Saputra), and Best Cinematography (Yudi Datau), with nominations for Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, editing, sound, music, and art direction[2](https://www.indonesianfilmcenter.com/filminfo/detail/3522/) • [3](https://www.festivalfilm.id/arsip/title/gie). The film also received the Hubert Bals Fund prize at the Rotterdam International Film Festival for its content and artistic value, and had its European premiere in the IFFR 2006 program[6](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345731787_The_Negotiation_Between_Queer_Spectatorship_and_Queer_Text_on_Riri_Riza%27s_Soe_Hok_Gie) • [8](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/2006/films/gie).
Critical response was divided. Feinstein rejected Variety's "tediously conventional" verdict and argued the 147-minute release version was accessible to non-[Indonesians](https://www.edgepedia.org/indonesians), praising how tightly the film interweaves the personal life with the political upheaval[4](https://fipresci.org/report/gie-the-personal-and-the-political-in-perfect-synch-by-howard-feinstein/). Indonesian critics applauded its content and artistic value but expressed disappointment at its lack of focus and weak screenplay and dialogue; the journalist Hera Diani argued it concentrated too much on the political movement and not enough on the human relationships between its characters[6](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345731787_The_Negotiation_Between_Queer_Spectatorship_and_Queer_Text_on_Riri_Riza%27s_Soe_Hok_Gie).
## Significance in Indonesian cinema
The film broke a long-standing taboo. Scholar Eric Sasono argued that Gie matters because it includes communist symbols such as the hammer and sickle and uses the genjer-genjer song associated with the PKI (the Indonesian Communist Party) in its soundtrack, both of which would have been impossible during the New Order era[6](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345731787_The_Negotiation_Between_Queer_Spectatorship_and_Queer_Text_on_Riri_Riza%27s_Soe_Hok_Gie). Coming twenty-three years after the 1982 government-sponsored *Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI*, the only other Indonesian film dealing with the destruction of the PKI and Suharto's rise, Gie provoked controversy because it was produced without government sponsorship[6](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345731787_The_Negotiation_Between_Queer_Spectatorship_and_Queer_Text_on_Riri_Riza%27s_Soe_Hok_Gie).
The film also treats a period still sensitive in Indonesia. The IFFR catalog notes that many issues surrounding Soe Hok Gie remain sensitive and that the film speaks to contemporary Indonesia; in censorship, only a kiss that lasted a little too long was cut, and no objections were made to the film's emphatic suggestion of homosexuality[8](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/2006/films/gie). A content analysis of the film's political communication found that of 3,866 seconds of scenes containing political communication, 2,302 seconds (59.54 percent) fell into the category of abstention, reflecting Gie and his friends' preference to remain independent and neutral rather than join any faction or party[10](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/50342678_KOMUNIKASI_POLITIK_DALAM_FILM_GIE_Studi_Analisis_Isi_pada_Film_GIEkarya_Riri_Riza).
## References
1. [Gie, Google Play (Indonesian)](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Gie?hl=id&id=7B9BBEFB69D5ACDEMV)
2. [Gie, Indonesian Film Center](https://www.indonesianfilmcenter.com/filminfo/detail/3522/)
3. [GIE, Arsip Festival Film Indonesia 2005](https://www.festivalfilm.id/arsip/title/gie)
4. [Howard Feinstein, "Gie: The Personal and the Political in Perfect Synch," FIPRESCI](https://fipresci.org/report/gie-the-personal-and-the-political-in-perfect-synch-by-howard-feinstein/)
5. [Gie (2005) full cast and crew, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0459327/fullcredits/)
6. [The Negotiation Between Queer Spectatorship and Queer Text on Riri Riza's Soe Hok Gie, ResearchGate](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345731787_The_Negotiation_Between_Queer_Spectatorship_and_Queer_Text_on_Riri_Riza%27s_Soe_Hok_Gie)
7. [Gie, Asian Film Archive catalogue](https://catalogue.asianfilmarchive.org/document/gie/637ea8a9ce9a48759635c9b8?pos=2&v=list)
8. [Gie, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2006](https://iffr.com/en/professionals/2006/films/gie)
9. [Soe Hok Gie: An Unshakable Idealist of His Time, in Sketches of Asia's Society, Kemendikdasmen repository](https://repositori.kemendikdasmen.go.id/24980/1/sketches_of_asias_society_-_people%2C_culture%2C_education_and_technology__r._alpha_amirrachman%2C_2021.pdf)
10. [Komunikasi Politik dalam Film Gie, ResearchGate](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/50342678_KOMUNIKASI_POLITIK_DALAM_FILM_GIE_Studi_Analisis_Isi_pada_Film_GIEkarya_Riri_Riza)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Documentary and biographical films › Biographical films of political, royal, military, and criminal figures › Political and revolutionary biopics*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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