Director Nan communicates without words

By Hera Diani

JAKARTA (JP): Film director Nan Triveni Achnas believes a film should provide the audience with a lot of space.

"We mustn't give them all of the story. Let the audience interpret it for themselves," she said recently.

She was speaking at a media conference to introduce her latest film, Pasir Berbisik, which is due out in theaters on Sept. 7.

The film continues in the tradition of director Garin Nugroho, with beautiful and poetic pictures but little dialog.

Following the conference, Nan spoke with The Jakarta Post, saying that film could not be separated from visual language.

"The power of a film is the language, where we can communicate without words, providing all of the information through pictures," the 38-year-old director said.

She said her goal was to use dialog to strengthen (the story) instead of explaining it.

"But I'd like to underline here that despite visually great pictures, a film still has to be communicative," said the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) graduate and professor.

Nan is clearly passionate about her profession, despite the fact that the film industry in the country has been unhealthy for some time.

This passion was demonstrated when she went through with the production of Pasir in the face of the country's economic and political turmoil.

"I'd always been obsessed with making a full-length feature film. So at some point I just went for it, talked to the right people and here it is."

Pasir tells the story of a relationship between a village girl, played by newcomer Dian Sastrowardoyo, and her over- protective mother, played by renowned actress Christine Hakim.

The majority of the film was shot in the desert around Mount Bromo in East Java.

Nan said the idea to shoot a film at that location occurred to her eight years ago when she shot the documentary Bromo, Kliwon, and I, which was screened at festivals in Japan, Germany and Australia.

She said she fell in love with the sand, which she described as beautiful, mystical and everchanging.

"The story developed later, with characters based on many of the characters I have met, read about and imagined," said Nan, who wrote the story in English.

She deliberately made the women characters the center of the story, with the male characters playing a supporting role. Although unwilling to be labeled a feminist, Nan said she was concerned with women's issues and often examined these issues in short films and documentaries.

"It is very interesting that suddenly women have become a reliable commodity in Hollywood, with the latest example being Lara Croft. Even men can accept the woman as the hero. That is also happening here," she said.

Passion for film

Nan's love for film emerged when she was a teenager (she was born and grew up in Singapore), a time in her life when she says she did nothing except watch movies and read books.

"I don't have a favorite director, though. But I have a lot of favorite movies, like Citizen Kane," said Nan, who has also directed numerous TV commercials.

She also loves to write. "Hey, I was with the paper (the Post), too! Back in 1984 ... but only for a year."

Nan said writing for print media was not her idea of expressing herself, even though she enjoys writing.

After leaving the Post, she enrolled in IKJ, majoring in film and directing.

In 1990, Nan won a fellowship from the government of the Netherlands for commercial, documentary and feature television training.

Four years later, after receiving the British Chevening Award, she flew to England to study at the University of East Anglia, where she obtained her master's in film study.

Her directorial debut was in 1988 with the short film Urip, which she also wrote. In the same year another of her short films, Only A Day, won the Grand Prize at the Young Cinema Film Festival in Tokyo.

Since that triumph, Nan has represented Indonesia at several foreign film festivals.

Noted actor Didi Petet, who starred in Pasir, said Nan was unlike any director he knew.

"Most of the time while making Pasir, she used long shots. Other directors give us a close-up shot, so it's easy for us to explore the role. But not with Nan."

He said long shots made it very difficult because the audience cannot see the actors' faces or expressions, so they have to identify the actors' characters from their gestures.

"Nan would say 'So, what do you have?' If we didn't get what she meant, then we wouldn't get the emotion. She just didn't want to lose the moment, the angles are all sand. I said, is she directing sand or people?" Didi said, laughing.

Nan said she had always wanted to cast Didi in one of her films. However, when directing Pasir she said she felt sorry for him and the rest of the actors.

"While the crew were wearing coats, near the stove and having hot coffee because of the very cold weather, the stars were wearing thin clothes and going barefoot," she said with a laugh.

Nan is optimistic the Indonesian film industry is getting closer to recovery, with Garin's Daun Di Atas Bantal and Kuldesak, and the commercially successful Petualangan Sherina.

"A lot of changes have taken place. The themes are very different from those back in the '80s. There are many young people now who want to make movies," she said.

For her next project, Nan said she is going to make another full-length digital film with 13 fellow directors.

"The story ... is still a secret," she said.