New Indonesian Cinema: Ten unseen gems

By: kuxa kanema

The 30th of March marks the birth of Indonesian cinema. It was on this date, in the year 1950, that the first Indonesian film, Darah dan Doa (Blood and Prayers) was directed by an Indonesian native, produced by an Indonesian production house and shot in Indonesia. Consequently, ever since 2007, the 30th of March has been proclaimed by the Indonesian film industry as National Cinema Day, to celebrate the highs and lows and the triumphs and turbulence that the country’s cinematic industry has endured. During its 60 years of existence, the nation’s film industry can be compared to a fruitful tree. Starting out as a single seedling, Indonesia’s cinematic business is still growing, producing more and more movies as it matures.

Below is a list of ten films by ten different film makers which have helped shape and define Indonesian cinema in the 2000’s. This list hopefully represents the amazing variety in Indonesian cinema today.

1. Of Love and Eggs, Garin Nugroho, 2006
Set against the backdrop of a small market in Jakarta, director Garin Nugroho’s intimate drama explores issues of family, faith, and romance during the Muslim holiday of Lebaran. As a young boy who works in a stall selling duck eggs rebels against his employers by crushing and staling the fragile delicacies, a mysterious and beautiful newcomer to the neighborhood captures his attentions as no other girl has ever managed to do. Later, as the taciturn girl sets out in search of her absent mother’s prayer mat, the older men at the local mosque try in vain to educate their distracted young charges.

2. Dead Time, Kala, Joko Anwar, 2007
In an unnamed nation in an unspecified period of time, a new law which is intended give more peace to the people by strictly upholding morality only ends up justifying people to take matters into their own hands. New organizations who label themselves “the guardian of moral values” emerge and will easily attack somebody they consider immoral. Citizens of the country are divided into two groups: those that grow more violent and those who hope that the myth about the birth of a person who will lead the nation toward the light will soon come true. A police detective named Eros investigates the death of five men who were burnt alive by a mob of pedestrians after someone screamed ‘thief!’ at them at a bus station. While his superior orders him to lay off the “insoluble” case, Eros discovers there’s a more sinister motive behind the killing than just a simple vigilantism.

3.The Photograph, Nan Triveni Achnas, 2007
A young karaoke bar hostess vows to fulfill the last wishes of the terminally ill photographer who took her in following a harrowing experience in which she was gang raped by a group of drunken customers in The Photograph. Sita is a 25-year-old bar hostess who also moonlights as a prostitute. One day, after Sita is gang raped and beaten by a violent group of customers, kindly Chinese-Indonesian photographer Johan comes to her aid. Though Johan is twice Sita’s age, an unlikely bond forms between the pair when the traveling photographer invites the young woman to move in with him.

4.Rainbow Troops, Riri Riza, 2005
One teacher makes a surprising difference in his students and his community in this drama from Indonesian filmmaker Riri Riza. Ikal was born and raised on Belitong, an island dominated by local mining concerns. On Belitong, a handful of people have become rich off the island’s natural resources while those who work the mines see little of the financial rewards, creating a sharp divide of social and economic class.

5. Pesantren: 3 Wishes 3 Loves, Nurman Hakim, 2008
Three teenage boys face the challenges of growing up in this coming of age drama. Huda (Nicholas Saputra), Rian (Yoga Pratama) and Syahid (Yoga Bagus Satatagama) are three close friends who attend the same pesentren (religious boarding school) in Indonesia. While the school’s principal Kyai Wahib (Brohisman) is a progressive Muslim who believes that his people should live in peace with Jews and Christians, Syahid harbors bitter feelings against Christians after real estate agents from the West cheated his father in a land deal, and he’s increasingly sympathetic to the extreme Islamic views of one of his teachers, Ustadz

6.Kara: the Daughter of A Tree, Edwin, 2005
Kara is a little girl living in an isolated place. Her father disappeared after Ronald killed her mother. A journalist’s invasion to her life made her decided to seek for Ronald for an ultimate answer. This short film was shown at the Cannes directors fortnight selection.

7.Jermal, Ravi L. Bharwani, Rayya Makarim, 2008
A jermal is a large platform constructed off the ocean’s coastline for fishermen, who use it to bring in the catch that they sell for their living. In Ravi L. Bharwani and Rayya Makarim’s drama, Jaya (Iqbal S. Manurung) is a 12-year-old boy who has been sent to live on a jermal near Indonesia overseen his father Johar (Didi Petet). Johar is a gruff and ill-tempered man who doesn’t like to admit Jaya is his son; the boy serves as an unpaid laborer on the jermal along with a handful of other boys who almost never see day land.

8.Love For Share, Nia Di Nata, 2006
This is a film about polygamy in modern Indonesia , the largest Moslem country in the world. It is a film about three women from three different social classes and ethnic backgrounds, conveying their passages in dealing with polygamy: sharing a husband’s love and attention with several other women. The film reveals their troubles and internal conflicts. In their course of finding the answers to their problems, sometimes they meet with each other without even realizing that they share a similar story.

9.Kuntilanak, Rizal Mantovani, 2006
Having been always molested by her step-father, Samantha decided to move to a boarding house that is located in a very haunted area. Rumours had it that Kuntilanak (the she-demon) lived up in a hundreds of years old tree near the house. Her boyfriend Agung tried to warn her, but she did not pay any attention. Soon, people around her died one by one tragically. Even Agung then mysteriously disappeared.

10.Playing Between Elephants, Aryo Danusiri, 2008
There is an Indonesian saying that when the elephants are locked in a fight, the mousedeer would die in the middle. But in this documentary, the mousedeer does not die – instead, it manages to play between them and get what it wants. This film documents a post-tsunami and post-conflict Aceh, where an international body (UNHABITAT) that is assigned to build houses, while an Acehnese village chief leads his people through the ups and downs of the ongoing reconstruction and rehabilitation process. The film very intimately shows how complicated it is to survive a traumatic event and then experience global intervention. Rebuilding a house in post-tsunami Aceh brings into play the whole world and forces the Acehnese people learn to deal with the friction between the global and local realms.

OTHER NOTABLE FILMS FROM THE DIRECTORS ABOVE

Garin Nugroho, Unconcealed Poetry 2000, Bird Man Tale 2002, Requiem From Java 2006,Under the Tree 2008, Blue Generation 2009
Joko Anwar, Joni’s Promise 2005, Forbidden Door 2009
Nan Traveni Achnas, Whispering Sands 2001, the Flag 2002

Riri Riza, Sherina’s Adventure 2000, Eliana, Eliana 2002, Gie 2005, Three Days To Forever 2007, the Dreamer 2009
Nurman Hakim -
Edwin, A Very Slow Breakfast, 2003, A Very Boring Conversation 2006, Blind Pigs Who Want To Fly 2008

Ravi L Bharwani, Viva Indonesia 2001, the Rainmaker 2004
Rayya Makarim, Whispering Sands (writer) 2001
Nia Di Nata, the Gathering 2003, Chants of Lotus 2007