Kota Tua, the old town of Jakarta, is what remains of Batavia, the fortified port that the Dutch East India Company built on the north coast of Java and ran as the hub of its Asian trade. The plan was a Dutch city transplanted to the tropics: canals, a grid of streets, warehouses along the water and a central square surrounded by public buildings. Around Fatahillah Square, the old city hall - now a museum - still faces the same open space, with the former court and other administrative buildings alongside. Nearby survive a drawbridge, a stretch of canal and rows of brick warehouses built for spices, coffee and sugar, while at Sunda Kelapa the old harbour still receives wooden pinisi vessels loading and unloading by hand. The film sets that inheritance against present-day Jakarta - the traffic, the towers, the crowds - and follows restoration and reuse in a district that has become a place of leisure for the city's own residents.
