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“If the feeling of loss were a place, it would be the zoo,” says Indonesian director Edwin of his second feature film.

“Postcards From the Zoo,” which was Indonesia’s official entry for the Berlin International Film Festival, tells the story of 3-year-old Lana, who awakens one day in a zoo, completely alone. Lana searches for her father, who apparently abandoned her, while simultaneously exploring the zoo and meeting the animals.

Fast-forward 20 years and Lana (Ladya Cheryl) is still living at the zoo. She has been raised by the zoo keepers, just as they raised the caged animals. Lana has formed deep and sincere bonds with both the keepers and animals.

One day, however, Lana finds herself charmed by a handsome young magician (Nicholas Saputra) dressed in cowboy garb. The magician offers what Lana has long been curious about, the outside world.

She leaves the zoo and follows the magician, acting as both his assistant and an occasional traveling saleswoman. When the magician suddenly disappears, Lana becomes an entertainer at a club and spa in the city. But the new gig doesn’t last long, as Lana finds herself longing for the zoo where she grew up.

“Postcards From the Zoo” is director Edwin’s second feature film. His debut, “Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly,” was praised for its controversial discussion of identity and racism in Indonesia. With “Postcards From the Zoo,” Edwin returns to the theme of identity in this surrealistic fable of longing.

With loss comes longing, which are perhaps the first emotions Edwin tries to convey in his introduction of Lana. In her monologues, Lana admits a particular fondness for a giraffe.

While giraffes typically live in groups, there is only one at the zoo. Named Jera, the giraffe and Lana are both unique animals. Lana wants to try and tell Jera that they are both in the same situation, and dreams of “one day touching Jera’s stomach.”

Edwin uses other animals as physical manifestations of human emotions, and compares Lana to the denizens of the zoo that were ripped from their natural habitat and placed in an unfamiliar one they were forced to adapt to.

Much like the animals in the zoo, Lana shows affection for her keeper — or one could say “master.”

In fact, Lana has been raised her entire life by the elderly zoo keepers. They teach Lana and provide for her needs, and there is no discernible difference in the way they treat and show affection to Lana and the animals.

But Lana’s affection eventually shifts from the zoo keepers, to the mysterious magician.

Edwin depicts a ball of red light that the magician manifests and manipulates. This light entrances Lana, and seems to represent her longing for a male figure. Following the magician, Lana is reintroduced to her “natural habitat,” the world outside the zoo.

Lana seems at first content to be living again in the real world, but even when her longing seems to have been assuaged by the magician, a new longing emerges.

This time, Lana longs to go back home.

In “Postcards From the Zoo,” Edwin raises the question of identity, and tries to answer that question delicately, while still giving the audience room for interpretation.

Edwin has created a landscape of comfort in the natural elements that speaks between the dark expanse of the sky and Lana’s own quiet restlessness. The background of the zoo also questions the concept of humans and animals watching each other, each without realizing how similar they are.

It is through the wrinkles of the elephants, the hippos wading through the water and the tiger who refuses to eat that we understand the message Edwin is conveying.

Humans and animals are the same, “open to estrangement, abandonment, feelings of loss and the longing for touch.”

And when Lana finally reaches above her head and touches Jera’s stomach, we wonder for a moment if there is an animal in each of us.

Kebun Binatang (Postcards From the Zoo)
Directed by Edwin
Script by Edwin
Starring Ladya Cheryl, Nicholas Saputra
Produced by Babibuta Films in co-production with Pallas Films