Postcards from the Zoo: A Magical-Poetic Treatment of Uprooted Beings

By: Ari Purnama

|Screened at the World Cinema Amsterdam Festival 2012 (8-19 August 2012)|

I have considered living in the zoo, actually, instead of in overcrowded Jakarta." —Edwin [Press conference, Berlinale Film Festival 2012]

Postcards from the Zoo (Original title: Kebun Binatang) is the latest film from Edwin, one of the most idiosyncratic young directors from Indonesia today. This film sensuously defies every cinematic category that we normally ascribe to a film. But more importantly, it invites you to ask questions that Indonesian films seldom ask about naïveté, the sense of being removed from your natural milieu and the hypnotic effect of magic.

As the title suggests, the zoo, in this case the Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta, is the centrepiece if not ‘the main’ character of the film. Just as important as the zoo, the other central characters in this outlandish universe are the animals, the giraffe in particular. Postcards revolves around a young girl named Lana (Ladya Cheril) who is raised in this zoo and finds parenthood in human inhabitants that seek refuge in the zoo, from vagabonds to an eccentric electronic musician cum wildlife documentarian referred to as Oom Dave.

Headshot: a Buddhist Crime-Noir?

By: Ari Ernesto Purnama

A Review of Headshot (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, 2011) at CinemAsia Film Festival, De Balie 4-8 April, Amsterdam

Last Saturday at the CinemAsia film festival (De Balie, Amsterdam) was the premiere of Headshot, the latest film made by the internationally reputed Thai filmmaker Pen-Ek Ratanaruang. Ever since the trailer came out, I have anticipated the day of watching this first attempt at crime drama by Ratanaruang firsthand. So, here is my take on the film.

Headshot, an Action Flick Made Difficult?

Headshot entails the story of a cop turned a hitman turned a Buddhist monk turned a hitman again, but this is not all. There’s so much more to it than one could expect from a crime thriller. Tul, a plain clothed police officer in a big city somewhere in Thailand is framed by a crooked politician, because he refuses to compromise by not giving up the case that involves a high ranking government official. From there the turbulent rollercoaster ride of chase and run begins.

Our Take on CinemAsia’s FilmLAB

By: Emma Kwee

The CinemAsia Film Festival in Amsterdam doesn't just showcase blockbusters and arthouse favorites, it also gives new talent a chance. In the FilmLAB three short films were presented, made by three young filmmakers from Asian descent. These three, Iegrien Yin Liu and Daan Vree from Amsterdam and Ari Purnama from Groningen, received financial, technical (and in some cases mental) support, during the painstaking, challenging and sometimes overwhelming process of making a short film.

Yesterday these films were presented. For those of you who missed it, be sure to buy tickets at CinemAsia for Saturday 13.00, for a last chance to see these gems.

Indonesian Filmmaker Febian Saktinegara & DSLR Filmmaking in Indonesia

By: Ari Purnama

With the rise of the DSLR filmmaking practices, Indonesia boasts a number of young talented individuals who take this platform seriously as a documentary or fiction storytelling medium. Febian Nurrahman Saktinegara, a 21-year-old native Jakartan, is one of these fresh talents that embrace DSLR moving image making with an innovative outlook. His lyrical non-narrative documentary on the contemporary urbanity of the capital city Jakarta, entitled “Merangkum Jakarta”, has won numerous praises, nominations and awards ranging from the SBM Golden Lens Award of the Erasmus Huis Jakarta to the Special Artist recognition at the ASEAN-Korea Multimedia Competition 2011.

Febian, known as ‘Embi’ to his friends and family, gives us a poetic treatment of the city that is full of gaps and contradictions through “Merangkum Jakarta”, but this is only the beginning. Ari Ernesto Purnama conversed with Embi for Latitudes.nu concerning his background, technique, views of Jakarta and Indonesia, and his future aspirations.

Belkibolang: Indonesian Independent Art Cinema Grown Full Force

By: Ari Purnama

Belkibolang (short for ‘Belok kiri boleh langsung’ [Indonesian for “turn left directly”]) is an omnibus of nine short films put together by prolific Indonesian young filmmakers. Besides the spatial and temporal setting—Jakarta at night time and a slice of life of its inhabitants—perhaps there is no conspicuous thread that connects each film to the other, at least not in a straightforward manner. But this is not to say that they are not coherently woven. Despite the diversity of the subject matter, these films seem to facilitate a fresh conversation among the filmmakers themselves and between them and the global festival audience.

Premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam earlier this year, Belkibolang since then has received numerous critical praises and festival invitations ranging from Udine Far East Film Festival 2011 to Hong Kong International Film Festival 2011. If you happen to be in the Netherlands this month you are in luck. The World Cinema Amsterdam Festival shows Belkibolang on Sunday 14 August 15.00 and 16 August, 17.30 at the Rialto. Afterwards the festival will go on tour and Belkibolang will be screened in Den Haag (22 August), Maastricht (3 September) and Groningen (10 September).

‘Nongkrong’ in Berlin: Highlights of the Jakarta-Berlin Arts Festival

By: Emma Kwee

Bringing Jakarta to Berlin was the main objective of the Jakarta Berlin Arts festival. In our opinion, this definitely happened. ‘Nongkrong’ under a ‘Lindenbaum,’ eating risolles in the Monbijoupark… sometimes we even forgot we were in Berlin! Here three absolute highlights of the festival!

Multatuli’s Max Havelaar: Who is more Corrupt?

By: Ari Purnama

Revisiting Multatuli’s Max Havelaar through its Cinematic Adaptation: A Review of Max Havelaar (Film)

Max Havelaar of de koffieveilingen der Nederlandsche handelsmaatschappij
(Max Havelaar or The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company)

Adapting a literary work into a film is a tricky business. One is faced with so many questions of how to best represent the literariness of a novel or a multi-volume historical epic in a two-hour feature film. Screenplay writers and directors must weigh their decisions on how much of the original piece is transformed into the screenplay and ultimately onto the actual sequences of the edited product. In my opinion, a directors’ interpretation is just as legitimate as the author’s intention or non-intention. But it’s a whole another business when it comes to adapting a historical novel, most especially, one that involves a dark period of one country’s colonial past.

Max Havelaar, an Undisputed Classic

Max Havelaar is an undisputed classic in the pantheon of Dutch literary canons. Its filmic adaptation is made by Fons Rademakers (1920-2007) in 1976 as a collaborative project of Indonesian and Dutch film industry at the time [although due to Suharto’s paranoid regime, the film was banned from distribution and exhibition in Indonesia until the 1990s]. Up until this day, not many Indonesians have read the book or seen the film, even though most know of its existence.