Hikayatussistance: Acehnese Hybrid Documentary Selected for Un•colonial Film Festival in Germany

A hybrid documentary by young Acehnese director Muhammad Hendri has achieved international recognition. The 18-minute-52-second film, titled Hikayatussistance (2025), has been selected for the Un•colonial International Film Festival 2026, taking place in Münster, Germany, from 23 to 27 August. Hikayatussistance passed a rigorous selection process, emerging from over 2,000 entries from 120 countries. The festival positions cinema as an anti-colonial practice that interrogates memory, land, diaspora, archives, and power. Produced by Muhammad Maulana and Aceh Menonton Films, the documentary features traditional Acehnese storyteller Fuadi Klayu. Using Acehnese and Indonesian, Klayu performs ‘Dongeng Sebelum Gulita’ (A Tale Before Darkness) in a red room, narrating a hikayat about a fertile land on the brink of destruction. The film’s blend of performance, archival material, and artistic visual construction frames the hikayat not only as living memory but also as a socio-political expression and an ideology of resistance. The German screening marks a new chapter in the film’s extensive journey since April 2026, which has included screenings at CineDocx in Yogyakarta, the UCIFEST 17 at Universitas Multimedia Nusantara in Tangerang, and a workshop at SMKN 1 Banda Aceh. It was also an official selection at the Internațional Open Frame Galați in Romania, part of the ICJ International Film Award programme screening in 100 schools across Ukraine, and featured at Bakaba Sinema in West Sumatra and the International Djogja Earthsound Fest. Developed from art creation research at the ISI Yogyakarta postgraduate programme, the film has previously been screened in the United Kingdom, India, and Italy, and has won the Best Mathilda Award for Best Short Documentary.