General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20267 min read

Sang Pemimpi

Sang Pemimpi (international title: The Dreamer) is a 2009 Indonesian drama film directed by Riri Riza and adapted from Sang Pemimpi, the second novel in Andrea Hirata's Laskar Pelangi tetralogy. It is the sequel to Laskar Pelangi (2008) and follows the teenage years of Ikal, his cousin Arai, and their friend Jimbron in 1980s Belitung, where the three dream of continuing their education in Europe¹. The film was produced by Miles Films and Mizan Productions, the same team behind the first film, with Mira Lesmana as lead producer¹.

Key fact	Detail
Release	Indonesia, 17 December 2009; classified 17+, in Indonesian, color¹
Source	Second novel of the Laskar Pelangi tetralogy by Andrea Hirata, published by Bentang Pustaka in July 2006¹
Director and writers	Riri Riza (director); screenplay by Mira Lesmana, Riri Riza, and Salman Aristo¹
Duration	128 minutes per the Indonesian Film Center; FilmIndonesia lists 121 minutes¹^•²
Budget	About Rp11 billion according to producer Mira Lesmana; a detikHot report put it at Rp12 billion³^•⁴
Box office	Second best-selling Indonesian film of 2009 with 1.9 million viewers; about 130,000 admissions on its first day¹^•⁵
Festival first	Opening film of JIFFest 2009 on 4 December 2009, the first Indonesian film to open the festival since it began in 1999⁶

Spoilers

Story and characters

The film continues the story begun in Laskar Pelangi, which covered Ikal and his friends in elementary school; Sang Pemimpi follows the same central character through high school³. Ikal, his cousin Arai, and their friend Jimbron are teenagers in the port town of Manggar in East Belitung, children of poor families in a tin-mining and fishing region, who work as porters at the harbor while attending school and dream of studying at the university level in Europe¹^•⁷. IMDb summarizes the premise as two village boys dreaming of traveling to Paris to study at the Sorbonne⁸.

Each of the three carries a separate romantic thread. Ikal still longs for his first love, who has left Belitung and left behind only memories and a tin box printed with the Eiffel Tower, the symbol of his Paris dream. Arai, a Malay-styled playboy, falls for his classmate Zakiah Nurmala in an unrequited love, while Jimbron hopes to rescue Laksmi, a young woman working in a cincau factory¹. Jimbron is written as a stammering orphan with an obsession with horses⁹.

Two teachers anchor the school scenes: Pak Balia, a young, inspiring teacher played by Nugie, and Pak Mustar, a strict and fierce school principal played by Landung Simatupang¹⁰. Mathias Muchus and Rieke Diah Pitaloka play Ikal's parents, and Lukman Sardi returns as the adult Ikal¹.

Production and casting

Shooting began in Belitung on 1 July 2009 and was scheduled to finish on 21 August 2009, with locations in Manggar and Tanjung Pandan in East Belitung as well as Jakarta and Bogor³. Director Riri Riza said he looked for locations that could represent the 1980s, the decade in which the story is set³.

Casting mixed established actors with newcomers. The teenage Ikal, Arai, and Jimbron were played by newcomers native to Belitung: Vikri Septiawan, Ahmad Syaifullah (credited as Rendy Ahmad in some listings), and Azwir Fitrianto, with Sandy Pranatha, also from Belitung, as the young Arai¹⁰. The adult Arai was played by Nazriel Irham, the Peterpan vocalist known as Ariel, chosen through casting; producer Mira Lesmana said his face resembled the character¹⁰^•¹¹. Maudy Ayunda played Zakiah Nurmala, and Yayu Unru played Bang Rokib, an experienced Malay sailor¹⁰.

The production budget was reported at about Rp11 billion by Mira Lesmana in an ANTARA interview; a detikHot review piece put the figure at Rp12 billion, larger than Laskar Pelangi's³^•⁴. Riri Riza described the project as a new filmmaking adventure, a story of young people chasing dreams set in the port town of Manggar, full of drama, energy, and conflicts of values¹⁰.

Release and box office

Sang Pemimpi opened the 11th Jakarta International Film Festival (JIFFest) on 4 December 2009, the first time an Indonesian film opened the festival since JIFFest began in 1999⁶. Festival director Roisamri said the choice fit the festival's mission of presenting Indonesian films rooted in Indonesian life on an international stage¹². JIFFest manager Nauval Yazid said the film was chosen because its flavor was very Indonesian¹³.

The film opened in theaters across Indonesia on 17 December 2009¹. Its first day drew about 130,000 admissions, which producer Mira Lesmana described as the largest opening-day figure recorded in Indonesia at the time⁵. By early January 2010 the film had reached 1.8 million viewers, and it finished as the second best-selling Indonesian film of 2009 with 1.9 million admissions, behind Ketika Cinta Bertasbih⁵^•¹. A later compilation of all-time Indonesian box-office figures lists Sang Pemimpi at 2,005,660 admissions¹⁴. The film was also screened in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Australia from March 2010⁵.

Reception and awards

The film won the Netpac Critics Award in the Asian Feature Film Competition at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2010 and the Tambores de Hojalata award for Best Film by the Spanish Youth Jury at the Festival Internacional de Cine para la Infancia y la Juventud in Spain, also in 2010; it was third runner-up for the Audience Award at the Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy¹. At the 2010 Bandung Film Festival it won three honorary awards: honorary composer for Titi Rajo Bintang and Aksan Sjuman, and honorary director of photography for Gunnar Nimpuno¹. At the 2011 Isfahan International Film Festival of Children and Young Adults in Iran, the screenplay by Riri Riza, Mira Lesmana, and Salman Aristo won the Golden Butterfly for Best Script¹. Mathias Muchus received a KuFI Award in 2010 as best supporting actor for his role as Ikal's father¹.

Reviewers noted that the film keeps the voice-over narration style of Laskar Pelangi but moves into adult territory, with the hardships of work and poverty replacing the first film's childhood world¹⁵. A detikHot review judged its cinematography stronger and its settings more varied than the first film's, and called it one of the best Indonesian films of 2009⁴. On FilmIndonesia's user rating it scores 91 percent from 178 votes².

Relation to the novel and the series

A comparative study of the novel and the film found that the film changes and develops the novel's characterization, making Arai considerably wiser than his counterpart in the book, drops some novel characters, alters the plot, and adds scenes not in the novel, while translating the Belitung setting faithfully¹⁶. Hirata said in 2019 that Laskar Pelangi, Sang Pemimpi, and Edensor were in fact one novel under the title Sang Pemimpi, and that he would republish his work in that consolidated form¹⁷.

The film has remained available to Indonesian audiences on streaming platforms including Netflix and Vidio¹⁸^•¹⁹.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released 2000 to 2009

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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