<Soegija>, directed by Indonesian master Garin Nugroho, is an epic historical drama depicting the country’s years of turbulence. Based on the journals of national hero Albertus Soegijapranata, the film reorganizes personal histories of ordinary people from the beginning of World War II in 1940 to 1949, the year Indonesia was liberated as an independent state. A nurse waiting for her brother fighting in the revolutionary army, a dutch war photographer with a crush on her, a girl waiting for her mother, an illiterate boy in the guerrilla army, a hottempered dutch soldier and a Japanese colonel who misses his family are the diverse characters whose lives and deaths are portrayed by the bishop Soegija. Given that <Soegija> required a bigger budget than any other films in Nugroho’s filmography, it is rather surprising that the director did not focus on spectacular battle scenes or heroic stories. Ultimately, he tries to portray humanism that does not discriminate between allies and enemies, and he hides neither the most miserable nor the most honorable moments on his nation’s past. (KANG Sowon)