A Letter To My Youth, or Surat Untuk Masa Mudaku, is a new Indonesian coming-of-age drama film streaming on Netflix with a heartwarming premise and adequate execution. The plot is centered around an elderly man named Simon Ferdinan, who suddenly finds himself in the difficult role of being the caretaker at a local orphanage, while his plans for life are very different and morose. Overall, A Letter To My Youth is nothing out of the ordinary, but its emotional nature will still impress and entertain fans of Asian dramas.
Spoiler Alert
What is the film about?
A Letter To My Youth begins with a man named Kefas being woken from a daydream by his wife, Rania, at his home office, as he is supposed to join the party going on at their residence to celebrate the 10th birthday of their daughter, Abigail. After the birthday cake has been cut and Abigail is finally allowed to play with her friends, the girl naturally jumps into the swimming pool at the lavish villa that is her house, but Kefas is immediately irked by this. He fears that the girl will fall sick again, and wants to curb her from indulging in any pleasures that might cause her to fall ill. When Abigail temporarily gets a fever that night, Kefas rushes her to hospital, despite Rania telling him that she has already given Abigail her prescribed medication, which should start working very soon. The doctor at the hospital says the same, advising Kefas to be more patient the next time, as the medication takes a few minutes to start working.
The reality is that Kefas is actually terrified of losing his daughter, as he had once lost his younger sister, Angelina, many years ago, when she was just a 10-year-old girl. But he has never told his wife about this beloved sister of his, whose photograph he even keeps hidden from his family, and so Rania misunderstands the whole situation. She’s been genuinely concerned about Kefas’ extreme overprotectiveness towards Abigail over the last few months, and so she takes the decision to return to her parents’ house for some time, along with her daughter. Kefas is anguished to find himself alone in his villa one fine morning, but a phone call soon shocks him even more. An old friend named Sabrina calls to inform him of the passing of a certain Mr. Simon, the caretaker of the orphanage where they had grown up.
Kefas immediately sets out for the orphanage, trying to call Rania and inform her of the situation, but she refuses to take his calls just yet. Once at the orphanage, Kefas meets with Sabrina and is told that he is to write a short obituary for Simon, since he had been the closest to the man all those years ago. Returning to the place where he had grown up, and emotional at the passing of the caretaker who was genuinely a good friend to him, Kefas cannot help but be reminded of his youth, and especially how his relationship with Simon had not always been so good.
Why did Kefas need an understanding and guiding figure in life?
As the second-oldest kid in the orphanage, Kefas was like a loving and caring elder brother to all the others, but he struggled with the same problems that many children face at orphanages and in the foster care setup. He started to have serious troubles with authority, and developed a care of insensitive disdain towards most elders around him. When Kefas was suspended from school for having urinated on a classmate’s books, he simply did not care about the repercussions of his actions and showed absolutely no guilt. Although it was later revealed that the boy had reacted to harsh bullying in such an extreme manner, his indifference was concerning to the owner of the orphanage, Wahyu, and the board members as well.
Kefas’ lack of empathy and desire to go against any form of authority was evident in him cruelly spoiling the caretaker’s food on purpose, and in leaving dead rats on the dining table on the day of the social event, just to disgust the couples who had come to the place hoping to adopt children. He would intentionally kick footballs at the neighbor’s house to smash his windows and cause him monetary harm. It was clear to the adults that, if not stopped, Kefas would develop behavioral issues in a few years’ time, and the teenager might even turn into a wastrel, or worse, a criminal. But nobody wanted to take the responsibility of helping him out, and instead thought of just evicting him from the orphanage and possibly forcing him out onto the streets, which would naturally push him towards a life of uncertainty and crime. Ultimately, it was Simon who stood up to be an understanding and guiding figure in the boy’s life, changing his personality with utmost love and care.
All Kefas needed was someone to listen to his woes and acknowledge his pains, all of which stemmed from the tragic death of his younger sister. Kefas’ father had brought him and Angelina to the orphanage a few years ago, and had promised he would soon return to take them back. Kefas knew all along that his father had abandoned him and his sister, but his childish optimism still sometimes made him believe that their lives would change for the better again. But when Angelina fell terribly sick around her 10th birthday, and the caretaker did nothing to help her out, Kefas and the other kids were left to deal with the situation alone, which they obviously failed at doing. Angelina passed away, and the grief of the loss gradually made Kefas reckless and even cruel towards others.
The caretaker at the time, Cahyo, had actually been inconsiderate and shameless enough to steal from the orphanage, taking away the ration and the supplies given for the use of the children to either use them himself or sell them off for money. He would fill up his personal car with all these supplies and medicines, lie to the kids about the goods having expired and therefore needing to be exchanged with fresh stocks, and simply return empty-handed every time. It was because of Cahyo’s evil acts that the sick Angelina could not be given proper medication or food, and so Kefas naturally held him responsible for his sister’s death. This also made Kefas develop an inherent hatred against all caretakers at the orphanage, as he believed that they all wanted to steal from the kids and ignore their concerns. It was for this reason that he would harass every caretaker who would come to the place, taking bets on how long they would be able to stay in the position. He tried the same with Simon too, but the elderly man did not only ignore these bullyish acts, but he also eventually gave support to Kefas, by opening up to him and telling him about his personal losses as well.
How did the children at the orphanage affect Simon?
Just like Simon had become a pillar of support to the children at the orphanage within just a month of him serving as the caretaker, the children also started having an effect on him, although he was not ready to acknowledge it for the longest time. Simon had experienced loneliness in his life almost constantly, and perhaps this was why he was able to understand and help Kefas all the more. Simon had grown up in the same orphanage, as he had no family, and so when he married his lover, she became the foundation of his life. But tragedy struck the family about seven years before the incidents of the film, when their son tragically passed away in a road accident. Simon was then finally left all alone once again when his wife died a year back, leaving him depressed and desolate. The only reason he had agreed to be the caretaker of the orphanage, just for two months, was the money he would receive for the service.
Despite not being too old, and therefore not very close to the end of his life, Simon had been thinking of death every day, and so he wanted to make arrangements from before. All he wanted was to be laid to rest right beside his wife’s grave, but Gabriel, the man running the local undertaker service, kept pressuring Simon to make his funeral arrangements at the earliest, stating that a customer was already asking for the plot of land beside the grave of his wife. Therefore, Simon needed a significant amount of money very quickly in order to buy the small plot for his grave and also to make arrangements for his funeral, all sold as a single package, and it was only for this that he had taken up the job. As planned, he kept turning down Wahya’s order and request to continue working as the caretaker, even though he was the only one to have survived for several weeks, because Simon had already decided on taking his leave from the mortal world.
Engulfed by his grief and depression, Simon had already taken the decision to end his own life as soon as his designated time as caretaker at the orphanage was over. Deep down, the man had been touched by the love and admiration of the young children whom he not only looked after but also trained and educated. Despite the initial hitches, the children thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the nurturing caretaker and even staged a heartwarming program for the couples who visited as prospective adopters. But an adult’s mind is much more complicated and egoistic than that of a child or a teenager. While Kefas had realized his mistakes and reformed his life completely, with the help of the caretaker, Simon was not ready to acknowledge the warmth and love that he genuinely felt from the kids, and so he decided to go ahead with his plan of suicide.
How was Simon ultimately saved?
It is obvious that Simon’s suicide attempt had somehow been prevented, since the man now dies of natural causes at the beginning of the film, but the moment when he was saved was nothing short of a miracle. Right before he left the post of caretaker, Kefas had stumbled upon his personal diary, in which he had read about his plans of committing suicide. Thus, when Kefas shared this information with Sabrina and the others, the children decided to do everything in their power to try and save their beloved caretaker. They frantically searched through all the documents at the orphanage to find Simon’s address and also the arrangement he had made with the undertaker service. Although they could not find the name of the service, the kids found the name of Gabriel and went around town looking for the man.
Meanwhile, Gabriel had a sudden epiphany while thinking about Simon’s situation at his shop. Simon had asked Gabriel to get hold of his dead body from a certain address and lay it to rest in the coffin that he had already selected in the grave site he had chosen. While following this order was quite conventional for Gabriel, as he provided such unusual services to clients who were lonely in life and had no family, he suddenly received a divine message, as he perceived it, against letting a man kill himself. Gabriel was suddenly filled with remorse and guilt at being so money-driven that he was literally not 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 reached the same spot. Ultimately, the children were able to find Simon just as he had put numerous sleeping pills into his mouth, and they started singing the song that the caretaker had taught them. This immediately made Simon emotional enough to acknowledge his genuine love and care for the children and spit out the pills, meaning that his life was saved.
What was Kefas’ biggest learning from Simon?
Although Kefas had turned his life around and had even been adopted by a wealthy family who promised to send him overseas for higher education if he proved his academic brilliance, the grief of his sister’s death still kept haunting him. The only possession that his father had left him and his sister while abandoning them was a radio, which Angelina valued like a prized possession. Naturally, the radio became a reminder of her to Kefas after her passing, and when it stopped working, he had decided to throw it away. Eventually, Simon found and repaired it, but Kefas could never take it back, as it reminded him of his sister too much. It was impossible for him to not associate the radio with his memories of Angelina, just like Simon himself always associated a specific perfume, which he kept applying every day, with the memories of his beloved wife.
However, Simon had taught Kefas the need to accept fate and move on from one’s losses and sorrows in order to look at life with a fresh and better perspective. Simon had experienced this shift in perspective after being saved by the children and finding a new purpose in his life. Similarly, he had taught Kefas to do the same, and while the boy had managed to do it for the most part, he still could not take the radio with him. Now, when Kefas attends Simon’s funeral service at the orphanage, Wahya gives him the radio, recalling how Simon always remembered Kefas long after he was gone from the place.
Does Kefas get back with his family?
It is this last interaction that finally completes Kefas’ course of learning from Simon, although his beloved caretaker and teacher has now passed away, as accepting the radio as a parting gift makes Kefas feel the need to let go of the past. He reads the obituary written for Simon and spends some time with his old friends from the orphanage before leaving a voice message for his wife, Rania. Kefas now finally tells his wife about the sister he once had, and about the shattering experience of losing her, which had now made him overprotective towards their daughter. Some time later, Kefas takes Rania and Abigail to Angelina’s grave as well, where the three pay their respects together, as a loving and tight-knit family.
