Competition Program
This program presents a selection of outstanding works curated from 167 film submissions, with participation from various countries including Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, Brazil, South Korea, India, Hungary, and China. These films have been carefully selected across five competition categories at UCIFEST 17, where they compete for various awards. Through this program, emerging filmmakers from high school to university students bring forward their voices and perspectives, interpreting the theme of power in diverse and personal ways. Each work reflects how a new generation understands, experiences, and expresses power within their own contexts.
Beyond the Limit presents stories about pushing past limits whether from self-doubt, economic challenges, or life circumstances. Along the way, there is a realization that we are more than what we once believed. Sometimes, it even leads to wanting more than what once felt enough, and daring to move beyond those limits.
Dream Challenger | Dream Challenger
Asher is trapped in a surreal world created by his own fear, self-doubt, and confusion. Struggling to escape this blend of reality and nightmare, he realizes the true battle is within his own mind. Through this journey, Asher learns that he must confront his inner struggles instead of running away.
Ting-Ting Dance with Breathes Hope | Ting-Ting Dance with Breathes Hope
Putri, A junior high school girl who is obsessed with having an Iphone like her peers, but first she must fulfill the condition set by her father.
Segara | Segara
Seen through the eyes of Segara, a fisherman’s son growing up along the coast. He dreams of becoming a renowned painter by entering a National Painting Festival that offers a scholarship—his chance to return to school. However, financial hardship and his father’s history of heart disease make him uncertain about pursuing his dream.
Meraih Harapan | Meraih Harapan
A family struggles to enroll their child in one of the top schools. At school, he falls under the influence of a friend, which leads to him receiving punishment. In the end, he strengthens his determination and studies diligently, eventually becoming one of the school’s top graduates.
Nemesis | Nemesis
In a remote North Carolina monastery, Father Thomas, a retiring priest obsessed with recent Byzantine discoveries in Istanbul, summons Adriel, a scarred young priest from Istanbul, to translate government letters. Grace, Thomas’s curious daughter, grows intrigued by Adriel. Drawn together by a philosophical game of perfection, they explore ideals of flawlessness, uncovering hidden talents and a deep spiritual love that unites their imperfect souls.
Wish You Were Ear | Wish You Were Ear
In a world where, after each break-up, ex-partners must exchange a chosen body part, Wish You Were Ear explores the lasting impact of relationships. People not only lose a literal piece of themselves with each split, but also carry visible reminders of every past love.
Face the Reality brings together films that reflect the world as it is capturing moments, situations, and issues that often feel familiar yet are not always fully acknowledged. Through everyday experiences and broader social contexts, these stories invite us to recognize the realities that shape our lives and the environments we are part of.
Blink! | Blink!
A man named Louis wakes up in the morning as usual, doing his morning routine like usual. Halfway through his routine out of all odds he gets teleported to a new place uncontrollably, confused he can’t help but keeps on blinking hoping it’s all just his hallucinations. Soon enough he gets teleported to a place where he meets someone that told him he blinks too much and then helps him get back to reality.
Komik Jagoan | Face It Like a Man
After stepping in to defend his bullied friend, a comic-obsessed boy imagines himself as a superhero in battle, only to face painful defeat and a father who condemns his tears, forcing him to question what being “strong” truly means.
溃疡 | Ulcer
While her daughter was working late into the night, her mother kept bringing her food, but this expression of love disrupted her daughter's work and personal space. Both were frustrated with each other's reactions, and eventually their emotions erupted.
Wuk | Wuk
Ulfah, a young mother, faces a painful choice when her mother and husband insist on circumcising her baby daughter as part of their tradition. Though she grew up within the same culture, Ulfah refuses to follow the practice and fights to protect her child’s rights. As family tensions rise, she must navigate the fragile line between standing by her principles and preserving her family’s unity.
Our Father Hour | Our Father Hour
Two different women with two different conditions of being fatherless. Raindza and Jilan are fatherless women who lived in a different kind of conditions. Raindza is fatherless because her father left her irresponsibly, and Jilan is fatherless because her father died when she was little. While telling their own stories about their own fathers, they also tell stories about letting the past go.
Rewrite the History presents stories of shaping a new path while holding on to what matters. Through these journeys, there are efforts to preserve culture by allowing it to grow and stay meaningful over time. At the same time, these stories reflect the courage to begin again opening a new chapter and creating a different path forward. In this process, rewriting history becomes a way to carry the past forward and ensuring it continues and is not lost.
The River Knows | The River Knows
Through Arka’s perspective, a creative designer traveling to Benteng Kuto Besak to gather visual assets through photography, he meets a local passenger aboard a river boat. The passenger shares stories about the direction of the rising and setting sun, as well as the history of the bridges crossing the Musi River.
Berjalan di Tengah Persimpangan | Walking at The Crossroad
Walking at the Crossroads tells the 42-year journey of the music group Congrock 17, who challenged tradition by blending the genres of Keroncong and Rock until they became known in various parts of the world. Through the perspectives of its members, the film explores their struggles, rejection, and the sense of togetherness that has kept them going amid the changing times.
Continuance | Continuance
Change does not always arrive with noise. Sometimes it passes quietly, leaving people simply continuing. An elderly founder sits in a quiet vihara, remembering ordinary rehearsals, practices repeated, again and again, set against decades of political change in Indonesia. Lion dance survives not as spectacle, but as practice. Tomorrow, rehearsal continues.
Hang on Those Memories | Hang on Those Memories
Edward is a teenage boy who lives with his parents and comes from a very harmonious family. However, everything falls apart after a tragic car accident takes the lives of both of his parents. Now, Edward’s life is in disarray; he has no job, no partner, and feels completely broken. He constantly struggles with thoughts of ending his own life.
Hikayatussistance | Hikayatussistance
In a crimson space, Fuadi Klayu, an Acehnese oral storyteller, performs Dongeng Sebelum Gulita (Tales Before Darkness), a hikayat that tells the story of a fertile land now on the brink of destruction.
Broken System presents stories that bring forward voices shaped by injustice across different aspects of life from the workplace and education to broader social environments. These films reflect situations where systems fail to provide fairness, often placing individuals in conditions that feel limiting and unequal.
Untung | Lucky
Untung (17), a high school student, receives donations after being involved in an accident; however, the funds are misused by his parents.
Curhatan Revi Siterusah | Revi Siterusah's Heart Voice
In a country with unreasonable work requirements, Revi (20) a quiet student who is pressed by the necessities of life, accepts a job as an editor, but is hindered by ambiguous requests and unreasonable demands.
Menyebut Nama dalam Gelap | Voices Against the Dark
After a mysterious blackout incident, Dirga is accused of assaulting his girlfriend and forced into a confession to protect the school’s reputation. As everyone accepts a single version of the story, Maya begins uncovering fragments of truth that point to a powerful figure hidden behind it all.
Strings | Strings
'Strings’ follows the story of an ordinary worker as they go through the life of an office worker. It shows how the worker endures pain and tiredness through the fear of almighty power of the superiors.
Saudi One-way | السعودية رايح بس
A young woman from El Sharkia travels alone to meet her groom in Saudi Arabia, wearing her bridal dress at the airport. As she prepares for her marriage—buying her henna and wedding attire, the film explores marriage traditions and the uncertainties of her new life.
Unheard Voices brings forward stories of individuals who are often overlooked, misunderstood, or seen as different. In many situations, these differences are treated as flaws something to be judged, avoided, or dismissed without truly understanding the experiences and emotions behind them. The films in this program open a space to see beyond those assumptions. They offer perspectives from people who are rarely given the platform to speak, revealing what is often left unheard.
Words of Raya | Words of Raya
The teacher called Raya to read a paragraph in her textbook. Raya stood there and silently watched the moving text. Feeling pressured, she sat back down, so the teacher asked her deskmate to take her place. Raya lowered her head in shame and looked at the cat she had drawn in her notebook. However, her drawing suddenly began to move, transporting her into a fantasy world.
安安的睫毛 | Enchanted Eyelashes
An An’s long eyelashes make him an outsider. Teased by other children, he escapes into his own picture book and befriends a tiger who shares his long eyelashes. Together, they journey through a world where eyelashes transform into everything and An An learns to embrace his uniqueness.
One Last Step | One Last Step
Seorang anak perempuan bernama Aurelia yang berjuang dalam kejuaraan lomba lari dengan penyakit yang diidapnya.
Selamat Tidur, Adil! | Good Night, Adil!
Raga, a quiet student of Chinese descent, is killed in a racist attack by two classmates who hide his body. When it disappears, terror begins. As one dies and the other is haunted, viral CCTV footage and guilt force the truth to surface, proving that justice can no longer be buried.
Love & Lost | Love & Lost
This film tells the story of Arga, a man who works at a repair shop and has recently started a new job at a company. His life, which was once stable, changes completely after an accident happens to his wife, Nala.
The Left Behind | The Left Behind
The Left Behind is a short documentary film that exposes the reality of human rights violations faced by persons with psychosocial disabilities in mental rehabilitation institutions. Through the life story of Berlian Kharisma, the film reveals firsthand accounts of the violence experienced while residing in such a facility.
Non-Competition Program
Everyone has a different point of view in terms of "Power". It can be interpreted as a force for the powerful, or a force for the oppressed. UCIFEST 17 non-competition programs presents films exploring “Power” from various sides. We screened 18 short films and 2 feature films, divided into 5 screening programs.
The Best of UMN program is present as part of the Opening Ceremony of UCIFEST 17. This program is a space for appreciation for the best works of students in the Film and Animation study program, Multimedia Nusantara University.
Fetch!
Logline: A genius inventor who rewinds time to save his dog from death.
7,6 SR
Logline: The story of a little girl named Mayra and her mother in the earthquake tragedy Padang in 2009
Honey & Moon
Logline: Martha (81) finally married for the first time after falling in love with Aceng (77) in a nursing home. However, she had to face reality to maintain her only true love before death separated them.
Harun
Logline: To save his failing business, a tailor must confront his own prejudice when he takes on an unusual order: creating a female cosplay costume for a young man.
Kevin VS Everybody
Logline: A child who always gives in finally fights for his right to get the last meal his family is fighting over.
The Official Selection program is a competition film curation program that still has interesting story ideas. This program becomes a space of appreciation for works, with the hope of still shining in its own way.
Duet Maut | Deadly Duet
A chaos in the school festival's schedule forced Mauryn to perform with Dito and his delinquent band to prove her ambition to her parents.
CALLSH#T
About an assistant director trying to finish the final shot of a chaotic film shoot that has already gone into overtime.
EDS
A woman searches for something she cannot name, only to realize what she has lost may be herself.
Azul | Blue
Celine, a young singer, finds herself devastated by the death of her girlfriend, Marina. In a mysterious twist, Celine gets the chance to finally say goodbye, as well as be comforted by the only person who could help her: the very one who caused her pain.
Proyeksi Masa Lalu | Past Projection
Kurnia (37) returns to face her past memories through projected images that bring both emotion and sorrow.
Labuhan Laut | Ocean Tribute
Traditional rituals have been attached to humans from ancient times, but over time humans began to leave the legacy of their ancestors.
The Shape of Power program presents a film that interprets "Power" in a variety of forms and perspectives, from personal ones to those eliminated in social and cultural relationships. This program stands as the short film screening that represents the main theme of UCIFEST 17.
Ciak, Ciak, Ciak!
Feli goes through many phases of life to understand her father from eating together on the dining table.
Metanoia Beauty is More Than Your Skin
A child with vitiligo wants to be a model, but she can't accept her condition, making people less interested in her.
Méuhambö (1998. To Chase The Monsters Away)
Amid the 1998 Aceh ethnic conflict, Suwandhi was accused of being a "Cuak," or spy, by armed bandits. He fought to protect his family to save his kidnapped child.
So I Pray
A little girl was told that the world would end the next year. When she expressed her fear to her dad, the only thing he said to her was to pray.
Mencerdaskan Kehidupan Bangsa | Where the Hymn Ends
A substitute teacher who longs for a better life enrolls in a teacher certification program. However, he is forced to choose between continuing to teach as a contract teacher or leaving the school due to the injustice committed by the principal against him.
Moonlight screening is a traditional Indonesian folk entertainment in the form of showing films in open areas. We aim to preserve this tradition by holding a screening of the film "Kereta Api Terakhir", which highlights the spirit of solidarity and the struggle for independence
Kereta Api Terakhir
127 minutes | 1981 | Indonesia | War, Drama
Mochtar Soemodimedjo
With the failure of Linggarjati Agreement as the background, a heroic and also a love story are interwoven. The army headquarters in Yogya decides to withdraw all existing trains to Yogya.
The classic film screening recorded traces of the people's struggle in Karo land during the time of defending Indonesian independence. "Turang" became the most anticipated film after disappearing decades ago and was found in Russia's Gosfilmofond, Moscow. Its return symbolizes the enduring power of history, and serves as a reminder that preserving cinema is preserving the power of the past.
Turang
In the midst of the Karo guerrilla war, Rusli fell in love with Tipi, a nurse. He was being hunted by the Dutch, making it impossible for them to remain together.
A collaborative screening program with Cinema World. Two short films present unique perspectives on space and life within it. Both films interpret "Power" from the perspective of discrimination against women.
The Sewer
A young woman starts working at a company where she is expected to make dolls, but she has difficulty fulfilling this request because her sewing machine keeps breaking down during her work.
Built to Scale
A shy office worker gains magical control over her workplace through a miniature model, but as she uses it to fight a toxic office culture, she slowly loses his sense of self.
