'The Poet' wins 2 awards at S'pore festival<\/p>\n
By Mehru Jaffer<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Ibrahim Kadir's powerful performance as The
\nPoet, set during the bloody aftermath of the 1965 coup attempt in
\nIndonesia, has won him the prestigious Silver Screen Award for
\nbest actor at the 14th Singapore International Film Festival
\n(SIFF) that ends on Saturday.<\/p>\n
A poet, Kadir was one of the thousands of people who were
\naccused of being communists and unlawfully detained after the
\ncoup attempt. He spent 22 days in prison.<\/p>\n
The film tells how he dealt with the trauma of his detention
\nand the witnessing of executions by putting these experiences
\ninto beautiful ballads in the tradition of a didong (singing
\npoet) from the central highlands of his native Aceh.<\/p>\n
The film's director, Garin Nugroho, was also honored with an
\naward for best film from the Network for the Promotion of Asian
\nCinema (Netpac). Garin recreated the Acehnese prison cell setting
\nin a Jakarta studio.<\/p>\n
Singaporean filmmaker Nazir Husain Keshvani said The Poet
\nsucceeded in part because of Garin's brilliant camera work.<\/p>\n
\"Restricting the location to a prison cell and pacing the film
\nwith long, boring shots appears to be a choice intended to make
\nthe film a sort of installation space for the release of the
\nnation's collective trauma,\" Keshvani said.<\/p>\n
Many have praised the film for its lack of malice in tackling
\nthe subject. During its 70 minutes, massacres and other
\natrocities are evoked through traditional singing, with people
\nsitting in a circle thumping on pillows and clapping their hands
\nto express their suffering.<\/p>\n
The only other film to win two awards at the festival is
\ndirector Asoka Handagama's This Is My Moon, which bagged a young
\ncinema award as well as a special mention by Netpac. The film is
\nabout jealousy, betrayal, hatred and lust in a remote village in
\nSri Lanka, the emerald island that is losing much of its glitter
\ndue to the ongoing civil war.<\/p>\n
The best film award went to Shinji Aoyama's Japanese film
\nEureka and the Special Jury Award to Turkey's Clouds of May.
\nKorean director Chunhyang won the festival's best director award
\nfor Im Kwon Taek and Vietnam received the best actress award for
\nNguyen Lan Huong in The House of Guavas.<\/p>\n
SIFF was started 14 years ago by film buffs and over the
\nyears it has established a formidable reputation for showcasing
\nAsian cinema. This year some 350 films were shown from around the
\nworld but about 40 percent of the program was devoted to Asian
\nfilms, with particular focus on the genre of documentary.<\/p>\n
To encourage excellence among Asian filmmakers, the
\nfestival introduced the Silver Screen Awards in 1991.<\/p>\n
Aruna Vasudev, editor of Cinemaya, the official
\njournal of Netpac, said the Oscars, the traditional focus of
\ncinematic awards, were merely a lot of hype by the media.<\/p>\n
\"What SIFF is doing for Asian cinema is amazing and the media
\nhas to take note of that,\" she told The Jakarta Post, adding that
\nThe Poet, even without an Oscar nod, remains an exceptional
\ncinematic experience.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/the-poet-wins-2-awards-at-spore-festival-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}