A Letter to My Youth, or Surat Untuk Masa Mudaku, is a new Indonesian coming-of-age drama film streaming on Netflix, with a touching premise and competent execution. The plot centers on an elderly man named Simon Ferdinan, who suddenly finds himself in the difficult position of being the caretaker of a local orphanage, while his life plans are quite different and bleak. Overall, A Letter to My Youth is nothing extraordinary, but its emotional nature will impress and entertain fans of Asian dramas.
A Letter to My Youth begins with a man named Kefas, who is awakened from a daydream in his home office by his wife, Rania, as he is supposed to join the party being held at their residence to celebrate their daughter Abigail's tenth birthday. After cutting the birthday cake and Abigail finally being able to play with her friends, the girl jumps into the swimming pool of the luxurious villa that is their home, but this immediately upsets Kefas.
Director: Sim F.
Writer: Daud Sumolang
Stars: Millo Taslim, Fendy Chow, Agus Wibowo
He fears that the girl will get sick again and wants to prevent her from enjoying any pleasure that might cause her illness. When Abigail develops a fever that night, Kefas quickly takes her to the hospital, even though Rania tells him that she has already given her the prescribed medication, which should start working very soon. The doctor at the hospital says the same thing, advising Kefas to be more patient next time, as the medication takes a few minutes to take effect.
The reality is that Kefas is terrified of losing his daughter, as many years ago he lost his younger sister, Angelina, when she was only 10 years old. But he has never told his wife about this beloved sister, whose photograph he even keeps hidden from his family, so Rania misunderstands the whole situation. She has been genuinely worried about Kefas's extreme overprotectiveness towards Abigail for the past few months, so she decides to return to her parents' home for a while, along with her daughter. Kefas is distressed to find himself alone in his villa one morning, but a phone call surprises him even more. An old friend named Sabrina calls to inform him of the death of a Mr. Simon, the caretaker of the orphanage where they grew up. Kefas immediately heads to the orphanage, trying to call Rania to inform her of the situation, but she refuses to answer his calls. Once at the orphanage, Kefas meets with Sabrina, who tells him that he should write a short obituary for Simon, as he had been the person closest to him all those years. Upon returning to the place where he grew up, and moved by the death of the caretaker, who was a true friend to him, Kefas can't help but remember his youth, and especially how his relationship with Simon hadn't always been so good.
As the second oldest child in the orphanage, Kefas was like a loving and protective older brother to all the others, but he struggled with the same problems that many children face in orphanages and the foster care system. He began to have serious problems with authority and developed a callous, contemptuous attitude towards most of the adults around him. When Kefas was suspended from school for urinating on a classmate's books, he simply didn't care about the consequences of his actions and showed no remorse. Although it was later revealed that the boy had reacted so extremely to severe bullying, his indifference worried the orphanage owner, Wahyu, and also the members of the board of directors.
Kefas's lack of empathy and his desire to rebel against any form of authority manifested itself in acts such as cruelly spoiling the caretaker's food on purpose and leaving dead rats on the dining room table on the day of the social event, just to disgust the couples who had come to the place hoping to adopt children. He intentionally kicked soccer balls towards the neighbor's house to break their windows and cause property damage. It was evident to the adults that, if left unchecked, Kefas would develop behavioral problems in a few years, and the teenager could even become a delinquent or, worse, a criminal. But no one wanted to take responsibility for helping him, and instead they considered expelling him from the orphanage and possibly abandoning him on the street, which would naturally push him toward a life of uncertainty and crime. Ultimately, it was Simon who became a compassionate and guiding figure in the boy's life, transforming his personality with much love and care.
All Kefas needed was someone to listen to his sorrows and acknowledge his pain, all of which stemmed from the tragic death of his younger sister. Kefas's father had taken him and Angelina to the orphanage a few years earlier and promised to return soon to take them back. Kefas always knew his father had abandoned him and his sister, but his childlike optimism sometimes made him believe that their lives would get better again. But when Angelina became seriously ill near her tenth birthday, and the caretaker did nothing to help her, Kefas and the other children were left alone to deal with the situation, something they obviously failed to do. Angelina passed away, and the pain of the loss made Kefas reckless and even cruel towards others.
The caretaker at the time, Cahyo, had been so inconsiderate and shameless as to steal from the orphanage, taking the rations and supplies meant for the children to use himself or sell. He would fill his car with all these supplies and medicines, lie to the children, telling them the products had expired and therefore needed to be replaced with new ones, and simply return empty-handed. It was because of Cahyo's misdeeds that the sick Angelina was unable to receive proper medication and food, so Kefas naturally held him responsible for his sister's death. This also caused Kefas to develop an intrinsic hatred towards all the caretakers at the orphanage, as he believed they all wanted to steal from the children and ignore their concerns.
For this reason, he harassed every caretaker who came to the place, making bets on how long they would last in the position. He tried the same with Simon, but the old man not only ignored these acts of harassment but eventually also provided support to Kefas, opening up to him and telling him about his own personal losses. Just as Simon had become a pillar of support for the children of the orphanage in just one month of service as a caregiver, the children also began to influence him, although it took him a long time to recognize it. Simon had experienced loneliness almost constantly in his life, and perhaps that's why he was able to understand and help Kefas even more. Simon had grown up in the same orphanage, as he had no family, and that's why, when he married his beloved, she became the pillar of his life. But tragedy struck the family about seven years before the events of the film, when their son tragically died in a traffic accident. Simon was left completely alone again when his wife died a year later, plunging him into depression and desolation. The only reason he had accepted the job as caregiver at the orphanage, for only two months, was the money he would receive for the service.
Despite not being very old and therefore not near the end of his life, Simon thought about death daily, so he wanted to make preparations in advance. All he wanted was to be buried next to his wife's grave, but Gabriel, the owner of the local funeral home, was pressuring him to make his funeral arrangements as soon as possible, claiming that a client was already interested in the plot of land next to his wife's grave. Therefore, Simon urgently needed a considerable amount of money to buy the small plot for his grave and also to arrange his funeral, all in one package, and that's the only reason he had accepted the job. As planned, he continued to reject Wahya's offer to continue working as a caregiver, despite being the only one who had lasted for several weeks, because Simon had already decided to leave this world.
Consumed by grief and depression, Simon had already made the decision to take his own life as soon as his period as caregiver at the orphanage ended. Deep down, the man had been moved by the affection and admiration of the children, whom he not only cared for but also educated. Despite the initial setbacks, the children greatly enjoyed spending time with the attentive caregiver and even organized a touching program for the couples who visited the orphanage with the intention of adopting. But an adult's mind is far more complicated and selfish than that of a child or a teenager. While Kefas had acknowledged his mistakes and completely reformed his life with the caregiver's help, Simon was unwilling to acknowledge the genuine love and affection he felt for the children, so he decided to go ahead with his suicide plan.
It's obvious that Simon's suicide attempt had been prevented somehow, since the man dies of natural causes at the beginning of the film, but the moment he was saved was a true miracle. Just before leaving his caretaker position, Kefas stumbled upon his personal diary, in which he read about his plans to commit suicide. So, when Kefas shared this information with Sabrina and the others, the children decided to do everything they could to try and save their beloved caretaker. They frantically searched through all the orphanage's documents to find Simon's address and also the agreement he had made with the funeral home. Although they couldn't find the name of the funeral home, the children found Gabriel's name and scoured the city looking for him.
Meanwhile, Gabriel had a sudden revelation while thinking about Simon's situation in his workshop. Simon had asked Gabriel to pick up his body at a specific address and bury him in the coffin he had already chosen at the cemetery he had selected. While fulfilling this request was quite usual for Gabriel, as he offered these kinds of unusual services to lonely, family-less clients, he suddenly received a divine message, as he perceived it, against allowing a man to commit suicide.
Gabriel suddenly felt filled with remorse and guilt for being so obsessed with money that he wasn't doing anything to prevent a man from taking his own life, despite knowing all the details of his plan. Therefore, he too rushed to Simon's new address, while the children followed his van and arrived at the same place. Finally, the children managed to find Simon just as he had put numerous sleeping pills in his mouth, and they began to sing the song the caretaker had taught them.
This moved Simon enough to recognize their true love and affection for him and spit out the pills, which meant his life was saved. Although Kefas had turned his life around and had even been adopted by a wealthy family who promised to send him abroad to continue his studies if he proved his academic brilliance, the pain of his sister's death still haunted him. The only possession their father had left him and his sister when he abandoned them was a radio, which Angelina treasured. Naturally, the radio became a constant reminder of Angelina for Kefas after her death, and when it stopped working, he decided to throw it away. Simon eventually found and repaired it, but Kefas could never bring himself to take it back, as it reminded him too much of his sister. He found it impossible not to associate the radio with his memories of Angelina, just as Simon always associated a specific perfume, which he wore daily, with memories of his beloved wife.
However, Simon had taught Kefas the importance of accepting fate and overcoming loss and grief in order to see life from a new and better perspective. Simon had experienced this shift in perspective after being rescued by the children and finding a new purpose in his life. Similarly, he had taught Kefas to do the same, and although the boy had largely succeeded, he still couldn't accept the radio. Now, as Kefas attends Simon's funeral at the orphanage, Wahya gives him the radio, recalling how Simon always remembered Kefas long after he had left the place.
This final interaction finally completes Kefas's learning from Simon, even though his beloved caregiver and mentor has passed away, as accepting the radio as a parting gift makes Kefas feel the need to let go of the past. He reads Simon's obituary and spends some time with his old friends from the orphanage before leaving a voicemail for his wife, Rania. Kefas finally tells his wife about the sister he had and the heartbreaking experience of losing her, which had made him overprotective of their daughter. Sometime later, Kefas takes Rania and Abigail to Angelina's grave, where the three of them pay their respects together, as a united and loving family.
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