Banda: The Dark Forgotten Trail

The documentary movie "Banda: The Dark Forgotten Trail" is visually stunning in parts but a narrative mess with disjointed clips telling several stories without a coherent structure. The director's visual self indulgence is unrestrained ("I let the six DoPs shoot any scenes they wanted") and this buries the narrative rhythm and suffocates any dramatic development of a story. A study of uncontrolled excess and style over substance.

As an Indonesian, I know Maluku (Moluccas) where Banda is located. And at school, I learned spices as one of the main reasons for the colonialism of Europe in Indonesia.

But in this film, I know how Buah Pala (Nutmeg) is more precious than gold at that time, the feuds of the European nations to control Banda, the relation of Banda and Manhattan...yeah the famous and glamours Manhattan Island in New York.

Well... if you were interested in world history, especially in colonialism or spices, you'll love this.

This is the best medium for a history lecture, ever.

In a very visually-appealing and engaging way, this documentary movie takes the perspectives of historians and key people with first-hand experiences related to Banda Island (in the Moluccas) to tell a story about how the island had experienced glory, got through colonialism, became a site where respected figures and people from across Indonesia were exiled, resulting in probably (once) the most multi-cultural island in Indonesia. It also tells the current condition and hopes for Banda.

Definitely a high-quality must-watch. Well done, Jay Subiyakto and team!

Banda Islands, as much as told in Indonesian history lesson, never quite mentioned as a significant moment and why goes there instead of others. The significance of nutmeg and its influence during that era is also never got proper spotlight from mainstream history lesson. This movie brought so much information and wrapped it in a visually enchanting, mesmerizing, and the foremost, engaging the viewers to bear the story. A 90-minutes documentary is enough to summarize the history and context of the importance of the islands.

The better aspect of this history documentary is the animation that responsible for giving "dramatic scenes" with shadows and animated blood gushes and ships, somehow create more accuracy and depth to the narration.

What's discourage me for giving this picture a perfect rating, is how the editing sequences, fast-paced editing that reminds me of Saw movies editing styles, pulls much of the intention to bring amazing natural beauty around the islands, but somehow make it stale due to the excessive use of it. It's a pity, knowing that this prolonged sequences always happening in every 10 minutes with 1-2 minutes each. For me, it's more like to fill the duration quota without any significance to the story.

At the end, the documentary serves right to give a proper overview of the history of the islands. It also shows hope for us that the islands aren't forget for dead. An excellent history lesson.