Garin's latest film blends art and anthropology

By Rita A. Widiadana

JAKARTA (JP): For those of you fed up with slapstick comedies and sinetron, check out the new film by Garin Nugroho.

The 74-minute Angin Rumput Savana (The Wind in the Savanna Grass) -- jointly financed by Johns Hopkins University, the National Family Planning Board and education TV station Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia (TPI) -- will be aired on TPI early next month.

Angin is a semi-anthropological documentary of the Sumbanese people and their rich cultural heritage. The film tells about friendship, love and revenge among three old peers and the Sumbanese society in East Nusa Tenggara.

After Surat Untuk Bidadari (A Letter to an Angel, 1995), Garin decided to go back to Sumba to shoot his latest film.

"I fell in love with the island, its people and its centuries-old traditions. They are so natural and beautiful, yet full of mysteries," said Garin.

As with his previous films, Garin takes an innovative cinematic approach to his new work by blending artistic and documentary elements.

To animate the film's simple theme, Garin cast Maudy Koesnaedi as Rambu Ana Wulang, Eko Teguh from Teater Populer as Prince Umbu Ana Awang, Unique Priscilla as Rambu Ana Intan and Renny Jayoesman as Ina Matokung.

Eko and Renny are seasoned theater actors but Garin was quite daring in his choice to cast Maudy as the protagonist. TV audiences know her as the obedient and timid Zaenab in the popular sinetron (TV series) Si Doel Anak Sekolahan, which gives little room for her character to develop.

"A star can develop herself or himself to become a real actor. Maudy is eager to improve her acting," says Garin.

Despite its simple theme, the film documents rare Sumbanese ceremonies such as the Tarik Batu Kubur, in which stones are dragged to mortuary grounds to construct graves for the rich and the nobility. The traditional ceremony has lost much of its grandeur since the local government restricted the wealthy from holding such lavish and glamourous ceremonies for the sake of prestige.

In the past, particularly at the funerals of noble people, literally hundreds of water buffaloes, horses and pigs were slaughtered to accompany the departed soul in the afterlife.

The number of animals sacrificed was prestige-enhancing and in Sumba -- where the remains of a highly stratified society of nobles, commoners and slaves still exists -- it was common for a family to bankrupt itself to put on a good funeral show.

"This ritual is now losing its grandeur and the one I attended and filmed might have been the last one. I was lucky to document the ceremony in my work," Garin explains.

The story begins with the return of Rambu Ana Wulang (Maudy), to her home village in West Sumba after graduating from a medical school in Java.

Getting off a truck, Wulang is warmly welcomed by her parents, all the members of the village and, of course, her childhood friends, husband-and-wife Prince Umbu Ana Awang and Rambu Ana Intan.

Awkward

Looking strikingly beautiful in a fashionable dress and carrying a Louis Vuitton suitcase, Wulang looks awkward among the humble and traditional Sumbanese villagers. As a matter of fact, Wulang, who has become a medical doctor, is not used to rural life. For Wulang, her school period was an escape from the centuries-old tradition of arranged marriage which Sumbanese girls are expected to follow.

Through a series of scenes in the village and conversation between the people, Garin and cameraman Yudi Datau try to capture the essence of Sumba's social and family values.

Arriving at her house, Wulang starts unpacking her suitcase and taking out the gifts she wants to give to her beloved ones, including Umbu Ana and Rambu Ana. Her mother tells her to get ready for a big Tarik Batu Kubur ceremony the next day.

At the ceremony, Wulang is not aware that her parents will actually accept a proposal from the royal family of Prince Umbu Ana to marry her off as his second wife. Without their children's consent, the families had long agreed to wed Prince Umbu Ana and Wulang since they were babies.

When Wulang rejects the proposal -- finding it impossible to become the second wife of her best friend -- the community is offended. They condemn Wulang for violating their "sacred" tradition. The story reaches its climax when Wulang is kidnapped with the approval of both families and the villagers. The option is unbearable -- to die or to wed.

Filming in hot and dry Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara, was not easy for Garin and his crew, who limited the shooting period to 20 days.

"We did a number of significant shots in some grassy plateaus and mountainous areas in West Sumba where the weather was so unpredictable. Sometimes, a hot and sunny day was often followed by heavy rain. It was difficult to get momentous shots," Garin explained while editing his film.

Maudy is forced to play difficult parts, including reciting poetry in Sumbanese, horse riding and running from one hill to another.

"It was a challenging part. Before the shooting, I attended physical exercise and vocal technique classes," Maudy explained.

In addition to dialog, Garin relies on landscape scenes, which cameraman Yudi successfully captures with wide-angle shots to portray the beautiful Sumbanese countryside.

"The technique is usually used for wide-screen movies, but we wanted to experiment with television production," Garin explained.

Historian Ong Hok Ham commented that Garin's films can be difficult to watch. "He mixes art and anthropology in film. As a filmmaker, he is experimental and usually only a few can understand the radiance of his work," he says.

Ishadi S.K., TPI's operational director, expects Garin's film to be a breath of fresh air in the nation's film and television industry. "It will be good for the audience to watch a quality film," says Ishadi.

Whether Garin's work is watchable and marketable is still hard to say. It will be up to the audience to decide after its screening on TPI next week.