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Questioning history through Indonesian cinema
Most movies loaded with history are intended to reenact a historical event or to glorify a historical figure. But is there still room for experimentation?
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Mind-bending collage: A still from 'Genre Sub Genre', an experimental short film by Yosep Anggi Noen, challenges the notion of film as documentation in this scene, which shows a giant paper boat sailing on a lake. The award-winning film was supported by the Museum of East Nusa Tenggara. (Courtesy of mubi.com/-)
H
istorical movies don’t even need to be all that factual. A typical example is the many movies with plots that reference Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, his personal life, the Holocaust, and the world war he started during his dictatorship.
Quentin Tarantino’s critically acclaimed Inglourious Basterds and Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit, as well as satirical comedies by German filmmakers like David Wnendt’s Look Who’s Back and Sönke Wortmann’s How About Adolf?, are just some of the hypothetical (alternative history) biopics we can watch today.
In comparison, the catalog of Indonesian historical movies is relatively pale, with Azhar Kinoi Lubis’ Surat Cinta Untuk Kartini (The Postman and Kartini, 2016) the most recent example. The film tweaks the life story of the national heroine to involve a romantic affair with the mailman.
“As a movie buff myself, I’m bored of how Indonesian films inspired by historical events or people are presented,” said filmmaker Yosep Anggi Noen.
“They are always linear and carry the nationalist utopia [narrative] that leaves no room for viewers to start a conversation about [real] history,” he added.
He was speaking during “History on the Screen” as part of Bingkis (Bincang Kamis), a Goethe-Institut Indonesien public discussion series that aired on YouTube every other Thursday from June 18 to Dec. 17. The video recordings are still available for viewing.
Expounding, Anggi said that filmmakers had a “poetic license” to take what they find in archives and history books and interpret these in a compelling and digestible format.
