Local film chosen for competition in French film festival

By Kunang Helmi-Picard

NANTES, France (JP): The 22nd edition of the Festival of 3 Continents took place in Nantes, France in the last week of November.

The French brothers Philippe and Alain Jalladeau founded this unique festival in Nantes in 1979. Unique, because it is the only film festival which concentrates on film production from Africa, Asia and Latin America. It has already brought over 1,000 films to the attention of the European public. The selection reflects the social, historical and cultural realities of these continents.

Alain Jalladeau underlined the importance of Asian films in contemporary film development: "Asia occupies a preeminent place in this movement and the quality of the films which come to us from this immense region is in continual progress. New talents from Asia stand out, even in the face of competition from American and European film makers."

Jean Neveu, president of the film festival, explained to foreign visitors: "What also makes this festival different from the other 500 film festivals in France, is the fact that the overwhelming majority of the 30,000 strong public comes from the younger generation." The public is not separated from the directors, cameramen and actors by stiff protocol and heated discussions often take place after the films are shown.

More than 70 feature films were shown from Nov. 21 to 28, while 10 films had already been selected to participate in the competition, including Indonesian Slamet Raharjo Djarot's latest film Telegram. This year's choice was overwhelmingly Asian. Djarot's film competed with two films from Latin America, two films from Iran, one from India, two from Japan, one from Kazakhstan and one from the People's Republic of China. The five member jury was presided by noted French film director Pascal Thomas.

The work of famous Indonesian filmmaker Slamet Raharjo Djarot had already been selected in four previous festivals in Nantes. He has always won a prize. But this time, his film Telegram based on an adaptation of Putu Widjaja's 1970s novel by the same name, did not gain the favor of the jury. The current fascination of French cinephiles with Iranian and Chinese films surely detracted the jury's attention from Djarot's latest film, a French- Indonesian co-production. Despite being a co-production, the Indonesian film could only be completed in June after three years intensive struggle against the vagaries of a battered Indonesian economy.

"It is not necessary, and indeed it is impossible to always win a prize," stated the Indonesian filmmaker: "However, for me it is primordial to take part in international film festivals and learn from others. This time, for example, I learnt a lot from the lyrical, and deceptively simple, Iranian film The Boy and the Soldier by Seyyed Reza Mir-Karimi. It is clear that Iranian film directors enjoy immense support in their own country because their films are distributed without having to compete commercially with foreign films."

The story-line of the 100-minute long film Telegram was not fully comprehensible to most of the young French spectators, unfamiliar with Putu Widjaja's fragmented, and often complex style of writing. Despite this handicap, the sensual and poetic impressionism of Djarot's film was highly appreciated, as was the role of the young adopted daughter of the chief protagonist. However, the relevance of Balinese reporter Daku's personal conflict, torn by the implications of the impending death of his mother in Bali -- played by Sujiwo Tejo -- was not clear to the French public.

The telegrams sent from Bali were never really opened by Daku. Throughout the film he lies and avoids making a clear decision about his life in the modern metropolis of Jakarta. He is confronted by three women of different ages: his dying mother, his imaginary lover and his adopted daughter. It is Sinta, his adopted daughter, on the verge of becoming a young adolescent, who gently reminds him of reality.

Slamet Raharjo Djarot's film Telegram will again be presented to an European audience at the Rotterdam film festival in January next year.

The Dutch venue provides the advantage of an environment more familiar with Indonesian culture and contemporary history. Nevertheless, the film festival in Nantes remains significant for Indonesian film makers.

This year's main prize in Nantes went to the Chinese film The Quay by Jia Zhang and the second prize to the above-mentioned Iranian film The Boy and the Soldier. In addition, Mehdi Lafti, who played the young boy in the Iranian film won a special mention. Another Iranian film The Day When I Became a Woman by Marzieh Meshkini, won the Prize of the Jury in ex-aequo with the Kazakhstan film Three Brothers by Serik Aprymov. The best actress and best actor were Kyoko Kazami and Tomio Aoki who played in the Japanese film Not Forgotten by Makoro Shinozaki.