Forgive Me. Thank You. (Maaf. Terima Kasih.)
2023 · 18m · Indonesia
Directed by Daniel Jhon Kevin Gultom
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, tender
A deaf computer science graduate attends a job interview, where his disability fills him with self-doubt as he tries to communicate with potential employers and prove his worth.
Picked by Zoe
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It's a premise that should feel heavy-handed—deaf protagonist, ableism, job interview—but Gultom refuses the expected catharsis, instead letting the silence and miscommunication sit there uncomfortably, which is exactly the move that saves it from being a PSA.
The film's restraint and formal clarity—how it uses negative space and reaction shots to articulate what remains unsaid—positions it in a lineage of humanist cinema that understands disability not as narrative arc but as lived epistemic rupture.
The decision to let the interview itself become the formal container—the desk, the distance, the audio descriptions the protagonist can't quite catch—transforms a modest setup into something urgent; Gultom makes the frame do the work.