Guess What? Ira Koesno

Ira Koesno's throaty laughter rang out through the telephone. "You don't suppose I should hang around the bridge and wait until someone climbs up and jumps to his death, and make a film of the whole thing, do you?"

The attractive and famous presenter of SCTV television station, who is studying for her master's degree on film and television production at the University of Bristol, was referring to the Clifton Suspension Bridge, an architectural heritage locally known as a favorite suicide spot. Locals say the last person to engineer his own death by jumping from the bridge was a student of the university who failed his exams.

Ira, together with equally famous SCTV reporter Arief Suditomo who also went to London, won early this year a one-year scholarship from the British government. One of her fall term assignments was to prepare a three-minute documentary on subjects characteristic of Bristol, a beautiful and lushly green port city in the western part of England.

Ira turned down an Indonesian friend's suggestion that she make a film about the flea market, known as at the "car boot sale", or the thriving Islamic community in the city. She said she did not have time to really interview police and locals or check whether there were any survivors of suicide attempts on the bridge -- which now has protective net -- in order to make a complete documentary.

In a recent meeting, she said she had decided to join some classmates' project on the millennium hype. "I'm learning a lot in the process, though," she said, with beads of perspiration dotting her flawless complexion.

"I am beginning to miss my family," Ira said, sniffing a little on account of a cold she has had for weeks. "When I say my family I mean my parents and my sibling, no one else," she retorted when questioned whether she had left someone special back home. (swe)