TV drama on scavengers launched

TV drama on scavengers launched

JAKARTA (JP): Noted director Teguh Karya launched the start of
his new production Alang-alang (weeds), a TV drama "on a little
girl who wants a better future."

"We will shoot the first take this evening," Teguh said
yesterday at his Central Jakarta workshop.

Focusing on a family of Jakarta scavengers, the "documentary
drama," is broken up into three segments, each 42 minutes long.
The show is a cooperative project with the National Family
Planning Board (BKKBN), the private-owned Televisi Pendidikan
Indonesia (TPI) and the film division of PT Citra Lamtoro Gung
Persada, the latter two owned by Hardiyanti Siti Rukmana.

Both Teguh and BKKBN chairman/Minister of Population Haryono
Suyono ensured the production would not appear to be propaganda
on family planning or the development of the prosperous family;
two issues recently discussed by President Soeharto for the
second part of the national family planning program.

"We want to share values without adding new slogans, as there
are too many of them out there already," Teguh said.

"Hopefully, people will understand what it takes to make a
strong family. We're not going to tell them that we want them to
use condoms, or accept Alang-alang as a pure, high form of art,"
said Haryono. "I have no right to dictate to Teguh."

Teguh said one of the sources of the drama's story was "an
unexpected interview with scavengers" and a recent investigation
conducted for the production by the American Frank Little
Associates.

Teguh said that the findings, both informal and from the
research, detail the resilience of scavenger families, the
embarrassment of fathers who hide their job from their children
who are left behind in their villages and the attitudes of
scavengers' children who are mocked in school because of their
parents' profession.

Cost

Teguh said one of the goals of the "low-cost" Rp 190 million
(US$87,963) drama is that its 20-minute trailer would be brought
to the International Conference on Population and Development in
Cairo, Egypt, scheduled for September.

The main characters of Alang-alang include ten-year-old Dea
Yunita Tiarakusuma as "Syarifah," a scavenger's daughter, Dimas
as Romli, her younger brother and veteran artists Rima Melati and
Rachmat Hidayat as a rich couple.

Dea has played in a few earlier TV dramas, most recently, the
character Ningrum in Si Putih. The fifth grader of Bekasi, East
Jakarta said she doesn't mind the mucking around in garbage that
her role requires.

"It is good experience," she said, adding that her studies
would not be affected. "I still ranked third in my class (this
semester)," she said with a smile.

Although Teguh claimed he was doing "something different" from
the other current TV dramas, known here as sinetron, he would not
give any specific comments about other mini-series.

"I will only say that 10 out of every 15 productions are not
good." (anr)