Aryo Danusiri

FPI (Islamic Defender Front) is one sign of trouble of post-Suharto Indonesia. Self-identified as an Islamic moral guardian, FPI is infamous for being actively involved in various violent practices. THE UNDERSIDE is a feature-length documentary based on year-long research with a camera on urban space, political violence, and Muslim subjectivity. It is a coming-of-age portrait of Sahrul, transitioning from finishing high school to entering the labor world. He lives under a toll road in a Jakartan urban village which inhabitants are predominantly FPI supporters. His family encourages him to be an FPI sympathizer, hoping it will help make him a good Muslim. The film follows the affective process of Sahrul as he learns about labor, piety, and maturity. THE UNDERSIDE unfolds the process as it occurs not only in the public space but, just as importantly, in the domestic family space of his narrow dilapidated house. It captures everyday conversation, which will allow the audience to comprehend how Sahrul and his family’s concerns on economic and urban inequality are inseparable from their religious interests. As an intimate portrait, this film strives to show the complexity of ideological penetration in the everyday. How FPI generates and mobilizes its grass-roots supporters has remained obscure. This film illuminates that process away from explanatory discourse and through a bodily and visceral human approach instead.