Merah Putih Trilogy
This was the project that first took Adam to Indonesia.
Shot during 2009 & 2010, it is a trilogy of films about the Indonesian fight for independence from the Dutch and Japanese, leading up to freedom in 1947.
The film follows an Indonesian ‘band of brothers’ with very different backgrounds, from all across the archipelago. It was mainly shot in central Java, and around the ‘Thousand Islands’ near Jakarta.
We did a lot of pyrotechnic and explosives work for this project, including blowing up trucks, cars, aeroplanes and boats – even an explosion in a historic building, full of original stained glass windows and right in the centre of Samarang city! Of course we did no damage to the building, even to the amazing old windows.
We worked with the local bomb disposal teams, the police and army, and trained a local crew – many of whom still work with Archipelago.
We had a lot of fun and made some great friends on this project, despite the rain, mud and difficult locations!
The film was shot on 35mm and all the special effects were done ‘in camera’.
‘Merah Putih’ means ‘Red and White’, the colours of the Indonesian flag.