Indonesia's domestic film industry has come a long way, given there was barely a film industry to speak of, prior to the country's political reformation in 1998. President Sukarno's post-independence regime used cinema primarily for political purposes, banning the import of foreign films. Then, from the mid '60s, Suharto's authoritarian 'New Order' administration applied strict censorship, so that up until the 'reformasi' of 1998, artistic output was heavily suppressed.
In the past decade, Indonesian film production has steadily increased with filmmakers free to explore a broader range of themes; albeit they face stiff competition from pirated DVDs and Indonesia's low-budget soap opera phenomenon, known as sinetron.
Australia's large Indonesian community features a large number of students, in addition to permanent residents. According to Indonesian Film Festival (IFF) publicist Debora Mahatmasari, both the ex-pat population and its interest in cinema have grown significantly.
“Indonesians were mostly not into film until the emergence of the Indonesian film industry 10 years ago,” she says. “Two or three years later, people started to watch a lot of movies and in the last five years this has really increased.”
Local Indonesians have had a film festival to call their own for five years, with IFF's origins in the sizeable student community based in Melbourne. In 2006, the Melbourne University Indonesian Students' Association (MUISA) put on the first of three festivals held at The University of Melbourne.
2009 brought expansion and a change of venue to the Capitol Theatre. The success of that event, together with demand from within the larger Indonesian community in Sydney, has prompted IFF to broaden its horizons beyond Melbourne. The 5th Indonesian Film Festival (IFF) is taking place at Melbourne's Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) from August 20-26 and Sydney's Event Cinemas, George St, from August 26-29.
Mahatmasari tells SBS the festival is targeted to the wider film-going audience, as well the local Indonesian population.
“I'd say about 70 percent of our audience is students and the target market has been the Indonesian community, but last year we were surprised with how many Australians and other foreigners came to the festival. This year we want that to grow even bigger.”
In previous years, IFF has set out to showcase distinctly different film genres. However, the theme for 2010 revolves around the problems and complications faced by women in contemporary Indonesia, where tradition, religion and emancipation have often been in conflict.
Opening this year's festival is the world premiere of Robby Ertanto Soediskam's 7 Hearts, 7 Loves, 7 Women, which centres on an obstetrician who tries to bury her past and many failures in relationships with men.
7 Hearts will have its world premiere at the festival, and Mahatmasari says the film's sensitive subject matter should make it a provocative opening night film: “It's about a woman who has been unfaithful in marriage, which is very contradictory to women as a stereotype in Indonesia,” she says. Director Soediskam will present the film as a guest of the festival, and participate in Q&A session .
Closing the festival is Garin Nugroho's Under the Tree (2008), in which three women struggling with their individual predicaments journey to the sacred island of Bali in order to find the meaning of peace.
Director/producer Garin Nugroho is one of the biggest names in the Indonesian film industry. “The story is very interesting, especially for people who aren't really familiar with Indonesia, but might know Bali,” Mahatmasari says. “The film shows that spiritual, magical side of Bali that you might not see if you went there on a holiday.”
Four other features are screening.
Charles Gozali's My Dearest (2010, pictured)) – also making its world premiere – focuses on a young mother's attempts to rescue her daughter who has been kidnapped by a mysterious stranger.
Paul Augusta's experimental drama At the Bottom of Everything (2010) travels within the troubled mind of a young woman whose life is marked by a constant struggle with mental illness.
Ismail Soebardjoÿs Shackled Woman (1980) tells the tale of the obedient daughter of a Javanese official who breaks down following her best friend's death, with tragic repercussions.
Finally, Teddy Soeriaatmadja's Maida's House depicts the complicated love story between Maida and Sakera, and the destruction of a house close to Maida's heart.
Four films will screen in IFF's short film competition. These include: Joko Anwar's La Promesse, about a young man who cannot keep his promise to his fiancée to attend her family dinner; Danial Rifki's Children of the Mud, about the hardships faced by survivors of a 2006 East Javan mudflow disaster; Chairun Nissa's Full Moon, about an orphan battling to keep possession of her seaside home amidst high flood danger; and Steven Facius' Love, which recounts a tale of forbidden love between a Chinese Indonesian and a Muslim.
Attending the festival are a dozen filmmakers and actors representing films from the program. Non-screening events will include a film workshop, and public talk on Cinema Women of Indonesia.
For more information visit the IFF website.
