Diversity missing in locally produced films

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is well-known for its rich cultural heritage, numerous local dialects and fascinating people of all different backgrounds.

But these riches fail to appear in locally produced films and television soap operas (sinetron) -- even in their language, which, in a way, is supposed to represent Indonesian culture.

Meanwhile, people line up at Studio 21 movie theaters to watch Hollywood films and watch dubbed telenovellas -- melodramatic Latin American soap operas -- or other foreign films. Reading subtitles is no problem.

This issue was raised during a discussion on Wednesday at the Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central Jakarta. The event was part of the Jakarta International Film Festival, which runs until Nov. 28.

Film discussions will be held every day until Saturday as part of the festival, with a workshop featuring film directors Kohei Oguri of Japan and Erma Fatima Rahmad of Malaysia capping off the discussions on Saturday.

One of the speakers on Wednesday, film observer Seno Gumira Adjidarma, provoked a lively discussion with the question: "Why doesn't language in Indonesian films reflect a clear cultural identity."

He said a film's language was based on a script was not taken from the language spoken outside the world of film.

When asked whether the scripts incorporated the kind of language being spoken outside the film industry, he said: "Maybe not at all. And if the answer is yes, it has to be measured by comparing it with spoken language outside the films .... "

He considered spoken language outside films the first reality, written language in the script the second reality and the spoken language in films the third reality.

"But there's no such thing as the most correct reality; no single truth. So clear cultural identification is unnecessary," Seno said.

He pointed to Marseli's Sri as an example, saying the film was praised for portraying how the Javanese see their world.

"But with a little critical sense, we see a metamorphosis that might be used against this opinion. Revealing the Javanese world should certainly use the Javanese language, but Sri's script and the film use the Indonesian language. So if it's believed that Sri portrays the Javanese world, then it's because the use of the Indonesian language is part of that reality," Seno said.

Convincing

Scriptwriter Jujur Prananto said a good film or sinetron should not be judged simply by how it reflected the nation's culture or social realities, or because it delivered certain messages instead of simply entertaining or serving commercial purposes.

He also refuted the idea that a film which failed to meet the requirements to be deemed "good quality" was a bad film. "A good film is a convincing one," he insisted.

A convincing film, he said, should not only be judged by the language used -- although the role of language in conveying a filmmaker's message is undeniably important -- but also by other aspects, such as storyline, setting, dialog, special effects and acting.

He said there was a tendency to attract as many viewers as possible by using the language understood by most viewers, in this case Bahasa Indonesia.

"Ideally, we should use the local dialect in a film which represents a certain community, but it wouldn't be accessible to the majority of viewers," Jujur said. (ste)