Moving film on Munie released<\/p>\n
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Following his death due to arsenic poisoning, human rights
\nactivist Munir won recognition as a martyr.<\/p>\n
It was a posthumous salute that elevated him to saint-like
\nstature, someone who was murdered allegedly by those who grew
\nrestless with his campaign to expose wrongs in society, namely
\nstate-sponsored violence.<\/p>\n
A documentary film released to commemorate his death last week
\ncould serve to reinforce people's convictions that Munir was
\nindeed a martyr, someone who led a modest life, yet was capable
\nof accomplishing what was once considered the impossible.<\/p>\n
The documentary film, titled Bunga Dibakar: Dia Yang Tidak Mau
\n`Mati' Sebelum Mati (Burned Flower: He Who Refuses To Die Before
\nDeath), chronicles the life of the slain activist from early
\nchildhood through to his untimely death.<\/p>\n
Bunga is an intimate, 45-minute documentary that can sap every
\nemotion from joy and anger to despair.<\/p>\n
Joy, from knowing about some hilarious aspects in Munir's
\ndaily life; anger, from learning that he was murdered in a
\ncowardly way when freedom of speech had already become
\nestablished in the country; despair, from the fact that there is
\nyet to be any light shed at the end of the tunnel regarding his
\nmurder.<\/p>\n
It was such a powerful documentary that when the credits
\nrolled at the end, the packed GoetheHaus audience stayed in their
\nseats, glued to the last snapshot that was beamed on a white
\nscreen.<\/p>\n
Young director Ratrikala Bhre Aditya, 19, a graduate of SMA 82
\nJakarta, deserves credit for painting a comprehensive and moving
\npicture about Munir's life from a collection of raw materials: TV
\nnews footage, soundbites from radio broadcasts, private
\ninterviews with Munir's family and friends, as well as clippings
\nof information from national newspapers and newsportals.<\/p>\n
In the hand of a lesser director such materials would produce
\nmerely a dull and tedious documentary.<\/p>\n
The films starts with a clip borrowed from a telecast from
\nMetro TV on the death of Munir aboard a Garuda flight that was
\ntaking him to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
After a brief intermission, the films starts with three of
\nMunir's siblings giving sometimes hilarious accounts about
\nMunir's childhood and early schooling.<\/p>\n
\"Munir was so skinny that all his clothes were too big for
\nhim. He was so peculiar with his reddish hair and when he wore
\ntrousers he looked very funny because his knees dwarfed his
\nskinny legs,\" younger brother Mufid Thalib said in the film.<\/p>\n
Mufid went on to say that Munir had a tendency to fight anyone
\nwho offended him. \"Despite his small physique, Munir had the guts
\nto challenge someone twice his size,\" Mufid said, adding that
\nMunir only resorted to fighting if he saw any kind of injustice
\nbeing perpetrated.<\/p>\n
Munir's sister, Annisa Thalib, said Munir rarely got good
\nmarks for his schoolwork; that was confirmed by a yellowing score
\ncard bearing D and C grades all over it.<\/p>\n
Another, rare revelation was that Munir was once drawn into a
\nIslamic fundamentalist movement during his university years in
\nMalang, East Java.<\/p>\n
Munir felt that Islamic fundamentalism was not the appropriate
\nvehicle to right the wrongs in society; he subsequently embraced
\na more inclusive interpretation of Islam.<\/p>\n
After graduating from Brawijaya University, Malang, Munir
\njoined the Surabaya Legal Aid Institute and his early activism
\nwas to organize poor laborers who suffered greatly from
\nprobusiness regulations drawn up by the authoritarian regime of
\npresident Soeharto.<\/p>\n
In a scene from the film, blurry footage from the late 1980s
\nshows Munir giving a lecture in Javanese about the exploitation
\nof laborers by their employers.<\/p>\n
The scene also shows a young labor activist who later became
\nMunir's wife, Suciwati.<\/p>\n
Later in the film, Suciwati says Munir was also a family man
\nwho loved his son Alif Allende and daughter Diva.<\/p>\n
\"Every morning while still in bed, he would always spend time
\nplaying with Diva and Alif,\" Suciwati said, to the streaming of
\ntears from some in the audience.<\/p>\n
Bunga Dibakar is applying the \"copyleft\" principle, meaning that
\ncopies of the film may freely be made without permission from its
\nmakers. For further information contact: The Commission for
\nMissing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Jl. Borobudur
\nNo. 14, Menteng. Tel : 3926983, 3928564. On the net:
\nwww.munir.or.id<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/moving-film-on-munie-released-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}