‘We’ve seen the worst-case scenario’: How Indonesia’s Cinema XXI navigated crisis and change

The strategies and stories that shape today’s leaders

[JAKARTA] Suryo Suherman still remembers how quickly optimism evaporated in 1998.

Fresh out of Boston College, he had returned to Jakarta and joined his family’s cinema business at a time when Indonesia’s economy was booming. “From 1994 to 1997, Indonesia was doing quite well,” he recalled.

Then, the Asian financial crisis hit.