Garin's latest film blends art and anthropology

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.