'Sri' movie may signal coming of artistic wave

By Rayya Makarim

JAKARTA (JP): Amid Hollywood blockbusters, trendy sinetron teleserials and the far from resolved monetary crisis, this year is surprising us with yet another awakening of the Indonesian film industry.

With a budget of Rp 400 million and a crew of 26, Sri, from first-time director Marselli Sumarno, will be a much anticipated contribution to this year's national film lineup.

After years spend observing the development of Indonesian films for critical and analytical essays, Marselli Sumarno, a graduate of the Department of Cinematography at the Arts Institute of Jakarta (IKJ), decided to try his hand at directing.

"Personal expression in film lags behind that in theater and other visual arts," commented Marselli. "That is why I would like to create a story about something I am familiar with, something I have mastered."

Marselli who also wrote the screenplay for Sri, drew inspiration from the wayang character Savitri, a woman who struggles to wrest her husband from the claws of death. The inspiration became a symbol, and the symbol gave birth to the screen character Sri, a village girl who is married to Hendro, a 70-year-old Javanese aristocrat.

The film is set in decadent Java, Surakarta to be precise, where men gamble and womanize. One day, after nights of gambling, Hendro falls sick. Naturally, as a dedicated and loyal wife, Sri's task is to nurse him back to health.

More difficult than that, however, is her pliant negotiation process with Yamadipati, the god of Death, bargaining for Hendro's time on earth. Sri wraps her bargaining theme in one spread: Man cannot die leaving debts unpaid.

Hendro should only be taken away after he has fulfilled the following -- obtaining forgiveness from his first wife for the wrong he has done her; returned an inherited kris, the spiritual dagger he has not deserved; and paid his respects to his spiritual teacher.

Finally, Sri miraculously finds the wit and togetherness for a skillful deal with Yamadipati, and Hendro's death is delayed.

Toward the end of the film, Hendro, irredeemable and beyond salvation, is as dead as the past, so the film's symbolism bares. After his death, the ordinary rote of day-to-day activities in the house continues. Against this backdrop, the last scene of the film depicts Sri and her sewing kit at center stage.

Sitting in Hendro's favorite chair, Sri is victorious without fanfare, regaining her true status granted to men by a history confused as to whom to entrust the survival of man's posterity.

In choosing the name Sri for his heroine and film, Marselli has cast an unmistakable mold for his personal expression: Sri the detached prefix for addressing royalty, Sri the name that one encounters everyday on the streets, Sri the rice goddess, a symbol of life and prosperity. Out of these symbols the screenplay writer wishes to sculpt an identity of the unassuming yet power-conscious, a calmly restrained version of today's Indonesian woman.

"Sri is the story of the modern Javanese woman. She is every modern Javanese woman," said Marselli.

Concentrating 80 percent of filming in one compound, Marselli shot most of his scenes in a Javanese house with a garden. One is irresistibly drawn to the conclusion that the director has discovered symbolism as an ingenuous or, shall we say "creative", economizing tool.

In selecting the location, removed from the benignly decomposing Javanese courts, the area around the house becomes a microcosm of Java, the house, a palace, surrounded by its yard, a royal garden.

Marselli made a deliberate choice of nonprofessional actors whose everyday life is close to the film's theme. Both Rina Ariyanti and R.M.T. Rono Suripto, in the parts of Sri and Hendro, are palace dancers. Better known players include renowned dancer and choreographer Sardono W. Kusumo as Yamadipati, and famous actress Niniek L. Karim in a supporting role.

For his first project, Marselli said production proceeded remarkably well. He was able to get all the shots he wanted in 30 days, none being full shooting days. Filming was made easy with a crew of old friends and colleagues from IKJ, with the exception of the lighting crew.

Marselli said the set was like home.

"It isn't like working. Everything feels light because it's done among friends, people you've known for years. There is a mutual understanding."

Marselli is now making preparations for his next project, a story of joblessness, a sobering reminder of the country's economic situation right now. Price of film stock has increased from Rp 400,000 to Rp 1.4 million, casting a gray shadow over the future of local films.

Many projects have been canceled or indefinitely postponed. Scores of film workers have flooded television, where budgets are lower, turnover faster and earnings more lucrative.

Yet, amid this economic darkness, three other films will hopefully see the light of day this year: Kuldesak jointly directed by Mira Lesmana, Riri Rizal, Nan T. Achnas, and Rizal Mantovani, Slamet Rahardjo's Telegram and Garin Nugroho's Daun di atas Bantal are in the pipeline.

During these hard times, Marselli suggested an artistic wave on a grand scale. Teamwork, cooperation, the hallowed gotong- royong principal of an agrarian past forgotten in urban Indonesia will be the order of the day.

"Don't think about high tech productions, but rather about the high-touch of creativity."

Sri, a collaboration between Cinema Sejati and FFTV-IKJ (the School of Film and Television from IKJ), is planned to be completed by April, just in time for the Cannes Film Festival in May. Cinema Sejati holds domestic distribution rights, while Marselli, as a representative of FFTV-IKJ, holds the international rights. Besides Cannes, Sri will be traveling to other international film festivals in Tokyo and Hongkong.

Sri does not pretend to compete with Hollywood on a technical basis. It tugs gently at the sleeves of the commercial film world, reminding it that contributions to the art of film lies in the translation of the local into universal.

Maybe this is the beginning of a new era in preparation for the long-awaited artistic wave.