Two recent RI films to be screened

Rainmaker (Ravi Bharwani, 2004) and Yasujiro Journey (Faozan Rizal, 2004) -- two low-budget feature-length films directed by young Indonesians -- are scheduled to make their home-country premiere at the Jakarta International Film Festival (JIFFEST) 2004.

Bharwani and Rizal, both graduates of the Jakarta Arts Institute, have released several short films and make feature or documentary films for television.

Rainmaker tells the story of a village struggling to survive a long drought. It fuses together so-called traditional beliefs, such as hardships as punishments from the gods, and modern technology in coping with natural disasters.

Set in a Javanese village, Rainmaker slowly proceeds to narrate the frustration of a meteorologist (Levie Hardigan) trying to create artificial rain to relieve the villagers from a very long dry season.

He meets and falls for a sinden (a singer, played by Clara Sinta), the daughter of a puppet master in the village. The artificial rain project fails and the ruling political party takes advantage of the disaster in a political campaign.

The love affair is considered to have brought bad luck and forces the sinden to exile herself in search of self-purification.

Although many Javanese idioms have already become tired (e.g. a woman washing a man's feet, the symbol of a sinden's promiscuity), Bharwani takes advantage of the whiteness of the dry hills and creates an unusual image of the Indonesian landscape.

The use of ritual-like offerings, and the way a maid takes care of her master's cow, relates Javanese culture to Hindu influences, which may have been taken for granted in a predominantly Muslim society.

The very slow action and scene progression of Rainmaker may appear overly ponderous, but is quite effective in conveying the desperation of the characters.

Faozan Rizal's Yasujiro Journey shows Yasujiro Yamada (Suzuki Nobuyuki) in search of his grandfather, who is also called Yasujiro Yamada, a Japanese fighter pilot who went missing during World War II.

His solitary voyage, which spans 60 years since the disappearance of his grandfather, takes him through a surreal landscape of deserts, creeks and dry forests. In the end, he too disappears, just like his grandfather.

With no other references to time aside from the main character's dress, Rizal relates the pain of loss that can accompany the search for one's roots.

He uses an unconventional storytelling method by developing the narration through written text and a blank screen.

The rest of the story is told through Suzuki's movements and facial expressions, emphasizing the nuances of isolation and solitude.

Unlike Rainmaker's vivid fascination with tradition Yasujiro Journey does not make any specific cultural references.

The story relates more to personal memories and could very well have taken place anywhere.

There is no dialog in the film, which only refers to Japan when Yasujiro sings the Japanese national anthem Kimigayo.

As far as composition is concerned, and in its use of unconventional colors, the film is rather appealing, yet the frequent repetition of images borders on the tedious.

Both films were screened at the Pusan International Film Festival in mid-2004 as part of their international premiere, and were well-received by a Korean audience.

Despite their low-budget production, the two films offer attractive cinematography and make an interesting edition to Indonesian cinema.

While these are their first attempts at making a feature film, the debuts of Bharwani and Rizal are well worth witnessing.

Rainmaker Dec. 5 at 2:30 p.m. Senayan 6

Dec. 10 at 2:55 p.m. TIM 1

Yasujiro Journey Dec. 4 at 2:55 p.m. TIM 1

Dec. 11 at 5:25 p.m. TIM 1