Produced by:
Bahri Sayf
Directed by:
Afif Fahmi
Target durations:
25 minutes
Genre:
Short Documentary
Stage:
Production
Completion Year:
2026
Production by:
Neighbourhood x Studio Murup
Production country:
Indonesia
The Dragons are gone. Lake Saga is withered. Yet in village of Bareng, Mbah Marno endures, battling despair and holding onto hope that water will return to restore the lost life.
Mbah Marno, a local custodian of Bareng Village in Gunungkidul, Indonesia, has dedicated his life to preserving nature, seeing it as an act of gratitude. At the heart of the village once lay Lake Saga, a vital water source believed to be protected by Dragons, spirit guardians of the land’s fertility. One day, Mbah Marno witnessed a pair of Dragons disappear into the lake’s depths, signaling the lake’s drought. Lake Saga is now a barren, cracked land. The villagers’ way of life has changed. They now depend on piped water for daily needs. Despite the loss, Mbah Marno and the villagers remain devoted to the land. He leads an annual ritual called ‘Besik Telaga,’ hoping for the return of the Dragons and the water that once sustained their lives.
Dragons’ Disappearance is a poetic documentary that offers a reflective visual journey through Bareng Village’s spirituality and collective memory. It explores the villagers’ deep connection to Lake Saga, where the Dragons symbolize harmony and the mystical forces of nature that have slowly eroded. The film invites viewers into Mbah Marno’s quiet, emotional journey of loss, hope, and devotion.
The documentary Dragon’s Disappearance will unfold through poetic visuals and a folktale narrative. Through Mbah Marno’s memories of his encounters with the Dragons and his deeply intertwined daily life with Lake Saga will serve as the backbone of the story. The dragon’s mysterious presence will be brought to life through visual effects and sound design, evoking the grandeur of a guardian spirit of nature now slowly pushed aside and fading under the pressure of ongoing environmental change.
Sound design will feature the gong, a central instrument in Javanese tradition. Gong, traditionally used to regulate tempo in Javanese music, reflects the rhythm of nature, environmental harmony, and a cycle of life. The Gong’s deep tones and resonant timbre will serve as an auditory metaphor for the Dragon, as the guardian spirit of Lake Saga. Through this soundscape, the gong becomes a symbol of a disrupted natural order and the fading rhythm of life. Animation will also be used to recreate past phenomena, drawing from the collective memory of the villagers and their belief in the Dragon’s fury.
The tone of the film will be reflective, guiding the audience through a contemplative journey across a changing landscape. Viewers will follow Mbah Marno and the Dragon at Lake Saga, witnessing, feeling, and gradually understanding the shifts occurring around the lake with a sense of emotional uncertainty. Nostalgia, pain, joy, despair, and acceptance unfold into a single shared emotion, the sorrow of losing the waters of Lake Saga.
Act 1: The Harmonious Life between Human and Nature.
The people of Bareng village have long lived side by side with nature. They maintain a harmonious bond between humans and the natural surroundings through traditional ceremonial activities. For some villagers, maintaining a harmonious bond with nature is not only an obligation but also a form of gratitude for what nature has given to them.
The Resan tree that grows abundantly in various corners of the village is believed to be the guardian of the village. As a symbol of prosperity, the tree brings life to their rocky, barren land. For the villagers, the tree is part of sustaining their cycle of life. Through the role of the Juru Kunci or custodians (Mbah Marno & Mbah Sakimin), traditional ceremonials and rituals continue to be well preserved.
ACT 2: Source of Life.
With its abundant water source, the Lake Saga once supported the villagers’ daily needs, such as drinking, bathing, fishing, and washing livestock. According to Mbah Marno and the villagers’ collective memory, the lake used to be the center of their life, where people would gather, share stories, and engage in activities together. Not only was the lake beneficial to the villagers, but it also provided life for animals and the surrounding vegetation. However, nowadays, the lake only appears during the rainy season. When heavy rainfall occurs, the lake collects only a small amount of water that can be used as a temporary fish pond since the water only lasts for a few days.
Aside from the Resan tree, Lake Saga plays an important role in supporting the life of the surrounding ecosystem.
ACT 3: The guardian & the chosen one.
Lake Saga comes from the word Saga, which originated from ‘Dragon’. The villagers believe Lake Saga is inhabited by dragon spirits that guard it. Rumor has it that each night, the dragon emerges to fill the lake with water. An act so sacred that it gave rise to a myth: no one must ever draw water after dark.
Mbah Marno is an elder and a juru kunci (spiritual custodian) who has lived alongside the lake his entire life. Growing up around the lake, Mbah Marno has had many experiences and even possesses deep knowledge about the mystical beings who dwell there. As a mediator between the spiritual and physical worlds, he strives to maintain a harmonious relationship between the two realms. To this day, Mbah Marno continues to take care of the lake by preserving the natural environment and communicating with its unseen inhabitants.
ACT 4: The Wrath and Disappearance of the Guardian Spirit.
Back then, Lake Saga was abundant with water. Over time, natural changes along with aging and climate shifts caused the lake to continuously dry up. The drought in Lake Saga was worsened by a government-led revitalization project that excluded traditional customs and the role of the local community. Many strange and unsettling events occurred during the revitalization process, such as the sudden appearance of numerous snakes when the soil was excavated. And when the excavator machine was stuck in the ground, it marked a point of nature’s guardian spirits’ wrath. At the time, the villagers merely interpreted the events as karma they had to accept. Mbah Marno and the community believe that the revitalization was the main reason for the drought and the disappearance of the Dragons.
ACT 5: The Yearning, Conflicts, and the Death of the Lake.
The villagers hold a deep longing for the prosperous/glorious days of Lake Saga. The water that was once the source of life now seems to have vanished, leaving behind a barren expanse of land. There are no longer daily activities of villagers relying on the lake for their needs. Occasionally, there might be people harvesting grass or grazing cattle around the quiet, dried-up lake. Today, most villagers have turned to using piped water or river water to meet their needs. This shift has distanced the once-close relationship between the villagers and Lake Saga.
However, Mbah Marno believes that there is still a way for the lake to flourish again, to be filled with water as it once was. He says that the key is for all the villagers from the three villages around the lake to unite and give their mutual consent to restore the lake through traditional customs. But the current problem is that there are still groups of villagers in conflict, driven by their egos, who believe that traditional ways wouldn’t revive/fix a lake that is already dead.
ACT 6: A wishful hope for the lake and the guardian spirits.
A shadow puppet show, usually called Wayang, is a part of traditional Javanese cultural practices used to tell folk tales and ancient stories. This show serves as a familiar medium to tell stories of the past to the community. In this case, we used this show as a medium to share the narrative of Mbah Marno and the relationship between the Bareng Village and Lake Saga. The truth is, the villagers are still hoping for the lake to return to its former state. Every year, they continue to hold the traditional ceremony called Besik Telaga as a form of devotion to the lake. The puppet show performance featuring the story of ‘The Dragon Guardian’ will be performed during the Besik Telaga ritual, which also becomes a symbolic moment to reflect how the bond between the villagers, Lake Saga, and the Dragon needs to be preserved to this day.
I was born and raised in a village, where I grew up surrounded by folklore passed down by the elders. Myths and folktales about nature’s guardians were more than just childhood entertainment but also they were life lessons that quietly shaped my view of the world. From them, I learned that caring for human relationships and all living beings is essential to preserving the balance of life.
On my journey of making films about the environment, I came to realize how modernity often distances humans from nature, reducing it to a passive object to be exploited. Mbah Marno’s story of the vanished dragon, the guardian of water in local legend, felt like more than just a folktale. It was a sign of something far greater disappearing, the balance itself. The drying of the lakes in Gunungkidul is a wound felt deeply by both the land and the people who depend on it.
Dragon’s Disappearance was born from the intersection of my personal experiences and Mbah Marno’s story. This film is a way to capture a sense of loss and to remind us that nature is always speaking, sometimes through signs beyond logic. For me, preserving myth is inseparable from preserving nature, as both are the breath that keeps life moving.
As someone who was raised in a village and grew up with folklore passed down through generations, these stories were never just tales to me.
They were life guides that shaped how I see the world, teaching me, for instance, the importance of preserving the land where I was born. They also became a wake-up call, urging me to share this concern with a wider audience, especially as rapid industrialization threatens to harm nature, our only home.
In this film, I aim to create an atmosphere that feels both enchanted and grounded, bringing to life the invisible presence of the dragon guardian, an unseen force the community deeply senses. The visuals will flow like poetry, carrying a sacred and mysterious aura that fills every frame around Saga Lake. I want the audience to be immersed, experiencing both the rhythms of the villagers’ everyday lives and the unseen world that safeguards their balance.
Dragons’ Disappearance is a way for me to delegate my concerns about the future of our nature, intersectional with my personal experience and also with a handful of help from Mbah Marno’s journey. We both share the same vision that modernity has distanced from human to nature, making it as an object that is continuously being exploited rather than persevering in for future generations. Upon the story of Mbah Marno’s about the disappearance of the dragons that have been guarding the water in the vast-karst area of Gunungkidul. For most people, they would see it as just another story, but for Mbah Marno and I, something greater is happening that could harm the lives of people in Gunungkidul.
Given our interest and proven track record in producing films that explore the relationship between humans and nature, as well as our prior experience working on a similar-themed project in Gunungkidul, we believe we possess the relevant understanding and perspective required to undertake this film. Furthermore, our close relationship with the main subject over the past few years will significantly support a deeper exploration of the film’s narrative.