Indonesian “Little Obama” biopic ready to hit screens

If the U.S. president feels like catching a move when he travels to Indonesia next month, he’ll have the option of watching his own life story:  The movie, produced by Multivision Plus, Indonesia’s largest production company, will premiere in Indonesia on June 17, the week of Obama’s anticipated visit to the country. The president postponed ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images
ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images
ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images

If the U.S. president feels like catching a move when he travels to Indonesia next month, he'll have the option of watching his own life story

If the U.S. president feels like catching a move when he travels to Indonesia next month, he’ll have the option of watching his own life story

The movie, produced by Multivision Plus, Indonesia’s largest production company, will premiere in Indonesia on June 17, the week of Obama’s anticipated visit to the country. The president postponed a planned visit in March to push through health care legislation.

The film tells the story of Obama’s childhood in Jakarta, where he lived with his mother and Indonesian stepfather from age 6 to 10.

“It’s about his friendships, his hobbies, just a childhood story,” said screenwriter and co-director Damien Dematra. “It’s not about politics, it’s just the story of a boy.”

Playing Obama is a young actor named Hasan Faruq Ali. Born to an African-American father and white mother in New Mexico but raised in Indonesia since he was 2, Hasan’s background would certainly seem to prepare him for playing the future president.

(On an unrelated note, this statue of “Little Obama” outside his old primary school bears an unsettling resemblance to Swine Flu Boy.)

Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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