Second Jakarta Film Festival opens Nov. 3

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta International Film Festival (JiFFest) will be held here for 10 days for the second time starting Nov. 3.

The festival will show some 100 quality films from Turkey, Iran, Egypt, India, Australia, Germany, Japan, Russian and Indonesia at Usmar Ismail Film Center, Erasmus Huis, Djakarta Theater, Ismail Marzuki Arts Center (TIM) and Plaza Senayan.

This follows the much attended event last year which screened some 65 films, mostly award-winning pictures from various countries. Last year's festival was a huge success according to the organizers as audiences enthusiastically flooded the festival venues for nine straight days. Some of them were even willing to sit on the floor.

The main theme of JiFFest 2000 are contemporary Islamic culture and human rights films.

Shanty Harmayn, chairwoman of the Indonesian Independent Film Society Foundation and the festival's cofounder, said the contemporary Islamic culture theme had been chosen because of audiences' enthusiasm to see Iranian films during last year's festival.

"These films are expected to give Indonesians a perspective on events and cultures of other countries which may have many similarities to events or cultures here," Shanty told a press conference last week.

Shanty, who initiated the festival last year after being inspired by the large crowds that attended the annual British Film Festival and the French Film Festival here, said it would be interesting to see how filmmakers in repressed Islamic countries could make creative and quality films amid tight censorship.

JiFFest's director and cofounder Natacha Devillers said a number of films that would be shown during the festival, especially those under the two main categories, reflects many current events in the country.

Among the 14 films which will be shown under the contemporary Islamic culture category are two Iranian films directed by the country's most prominent director Abbas Kiarotami titled Wind Will Carry Us and Taste of Cherry.

There will be seven films on human rights screened at the festival, including the winner for Best Picture at the Cairo International Film Award in 1996, The Story of Flores Contemplacion.

The Philippines-made film tells the true and tragic story of the Filipino maid hung for murder in Singapore in 1995 which called to attention the plight of overseas workers including in Indonesians.

Other categories of films during the festival are New Asian Cinema, U.S. Independents, Music on Film, Focus on India, Fun Fearless Female, Animation and Youth in Frame.

The festival will also show films directed by the world's most prominent film directors who are more known to art house crowds, such as Takeshi Kitano, Errol Morris and Tran An Hung. It will also present collaborations from director-actor Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski.

Four films made by foreign filmmakers but focusing on Indonesia will also be shown. They include the well-known The Year of Living Dangerously which tells the story of the turbulence in Indonesia in 1965. It stars Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hunt.

The festival will also show several Indonesian films under the New Indonesian Cinema, Focus on Garin Nugroho and Djajakusuma Retrospective categories.

Award-winning Chinese film Shower which was directed by Zhang Yang has been selected to open the festival while a Bhutanese film, The Cup will close the event.

The Cup is particularly interesting since the film which premiered in the Cannes Film Festival last year was written and directed by a Tibetan lama, Khyentse Norbu. The film tells the story of some Tibetan monks who were crazy about the World Cup which eventually disturbed their concentration.

The festival will also hold film discussions in which several notable speakers are scheduled to participate.

Two discussions titled Issues in Contemporary Islamic Culture and Islam; and Freedom of Expression and Film will be held on Nov. 12 at the Usmar Ismail Film Center with speakers Nurcholish Madjid, Goenawan Muhammad, Asrul Sani and Ahmad Sahal.

According to the festival organizing committee, the issues were raised because Islam was often represented as a homogeneous entity by the mass media as well as by the Islamic community itself. Part of the media still labels Islam with the stigma of fundamentalists and a threat to democracy and openness. The great variety in Islam that also includes the tolerant and moderate faces of the faith is forgotten.

Tickets are being sold at Rp 7,500 a movie or Rp 5,000 per ticket if you purchase 10 or more tickets for different films and they can be booked in advance.

From Oct. 21 to Nov. 3, tickets can be obtained at Jl. Sutan Syahrir 1 C Blok 3-4, Central Jakarta, while from Nov. 3 to Nov. 12, tickets can be obtained at Usmar Ismail Film Center at Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav. 22, South Jakarta.

Tickets are also available in limited quantities at the films venues everyday two hours prior to the screening.

People can visit www.jiffest.com or call (021) 923-8364 for film schedules. (jaw).