Garin's new movie speaks for his reputation

Aku Ingin Menciummu Sekali Saja (I Want to Kiss You Just Once a.k.a. The Bird Man Tale) **1/2 (out of ****) Drama, 90 minutes Starring Lulu Tobing, Octavianus Rysiat, Sonya Baransano, Minus Karoba, Adi Kurdi Written and Directed by Garin Nugroho A SET Film Workshop and Prima Entertainment Production

Joko E.H. Anwar Contributor Jakarta

Garin Nugroho's new movie is his most accessible, and perhaps his best work to date, and shows signs that the director finally made a movie with the audience in mind.

Set in the turbulent province of Papua, the movie tells the story of high school student Arnold (Octavianus Rysiat) whose father is linked to the pro-independence Papuan Presidium Council (PDP).

When some parties are hunting down PDP activists, Arnold's father has to hide in the hills, using a cassowary bird as camouflage.

Confused by all the chaos which is going on around him, Arnold, who also works as a janitor in a local church begins to lose his faith.

He finds beauty in a mysterious, nameless sad young woman (Lulu Tobing) whose purpose in coming down to Papua is unknown.

Arnold no longer feels enlightened by kissing the water that drips from the statue of Jesus. Instead, he dreams about kissing the young woman whose light skin is unlike any other women's in his village.

The coming-of-age story works well against the political backdrop which takes place around the death of PDP chairman Theys Hiyo Eluay on Nov. 10, 2001. Theys was allegedly killed by several members of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus).

Garin makes effective use of footage of real incidents combined with staged scenes which also works in his Surat Untuk Bidadari (A Letter to an Angel) in 1994.

This confirms the fact that Garin has better sense for documentary film.

Dialog, which in most of his movies lacks believability, works this time.

It is probably because the movie is set in an area where most audiences do not know how locals speak in real life.

The cast, which mostly consists of non-actors give good performances, especially the four young characters.

The story builds up well.The intended poetry and irony fall into place. Even though it suddenly loses steam toward the last third, it ultimately recovers near the end.

It is still too early, however, to say that Garin has stepped into the mainstream, because even though I Want To Kiss You Just Once has a more accessible storyline than his earlier works, most of the elements in the movie will still puzzle the audience.

The fact that the mysterious young woman is never explained until the movie ends should be a source of criticism from mainstream viewers.

It is a wise decision, however, to keep the character unexplained since Garin seems to want to keep Arnold as the sole central character.

One major weakness of the movie (like most of locally made recent releases) is that it was shot with a digital video camera then transferred into celluloid.

While the hype surrounding digital video may lure many local filmmakers to use the medium, especially since it is much cheaper, the result is unsatisfactory.

In some cases, such as in Riri Riza's Eliana, Eliana, the digital video look somehow adds to the atmosphere of the movie which takes place in confined, night time Jakarta.

However, we cannot say the same for Garin's new movie which uses vast, panoramic locations in Papua.

Highly regarded in several international film circuits and by the art-house crowd at home, Garin Nugroho is arguably the country's most talked-about film personality in the past decade.

For many, however, the 41-year-old film director remains merely as an overrated filmmaker.

His first feature, Cinta Dalam Sepotong Roti (Love in a Slice of Bread) released in 1991, is a wildly overpraised sex-themed road movie.

Despite its victory at the Indonesian Film Festival (FFI), the film is technically unimpressive and remains a pretentious attempt at being poetic, riddled with unintentionally hilarious dialog and wooden acting.

Garin continued making art-house movies throughout the decade which generally failed to attract local filmgoers.

His second outing, Bulan Tertusuk Ilalang (And the Moon Dances), showed improvement in the technical department but suffers from weak storytelling.

Even his Surat Untuk Bidadari, another movie which speaks for his reputation, received a cold welcome from local audiences.

His fourth movie, Daun di Atas Bantal (A Leaf on a Pillow), is probably the most overrated film in local film history.

The film which tells of the dark life of street kids is visually arresting and well-acted, mostly by non-actors, but fatally manipulative.

The hype surrounding the movie, however, succeeded in helping the movie to gain a decent figure at the box office.

The fair commercial success of the movie was also due to local audience's longing for locally made movies since the local film industry has long been dead.

The emerge of new, young talented filmmakers marked by the release of Petualangan Sherina (Sherina's Adventures) in 2000 made audiences realize that there are actually movies they can enjoy.

This automatically takes the spotlight off an art- house/political filmmaker like Garin.

His pretentious, unwatchable "educational" movie, Rembulan di Ujung Dahan (Moon at the Tip of a Branch), also made this year ended up being a major embarrassment and remains unreleased.

I Want to Kiss You Just Once, however, may put the once- celebrated director into the circuit again.