Between Archive and Screen: A Historiographical Critique of the Representation of the 22 October 1945 Jihad Resolution in Sang Kiai (2013)

Abstract

This article examines the representation of the 22 October 1945 Jihad Resolution in Sang Kiai (2013) by treating the film as a public historical narrative to be read alongside its production context, cinematic conventions, and historical evidence. The study employs the historical method through heuristics, external and internal criticism, interpretation, and historiography. Primary sources include Sang Kiai, the Resoloesi Djihad fi-Sabilillah document, Rapi Films' production materials, and contemporary newspapers; secondary sources are used to reconstruct the Japanese occupation, Nahdlatul Ulama's position, and the Surabaya Revolution. The findings show that the film preserves a factual core: KH. Hasyim Asy’ari's refusal of seikerei, the consolidation of ulama, the obligation to defend the Republic, and the mobilization of santri. Yet this substantive fidelity is accompanied by dramatized torture, the invention of the composite character Harun, compression of a two-day deliberation, simplification of the jurisprudential reasoning of fardhu ’ain–fardhu kifayah, omission of the MIAI–Masyumi phase, and a reduced role for the TKR, youth groups, workers, and non-santri fighters. The discussion shows that these deviations are not all factual errors, but strategies for creating “cinematic truth” that return ulama and pesantren to the center of revolutionary memory. The article's novelty lies in distinguishing event accuracy, juridical-theological completeness, causality, and the proportion of actors. This framework shows that Sang Kiai both corrects military-centered historiography and produces a new narrowing when a multisectoral revolution is represented primarily as santri heroism.