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'Gara-gara Bola': About urban life, not soccer

If you happen to be a huge soccer fan, be aware that Gara-Gara Bola (Because of Soccer) is not a soccer movie

Ary Hermawan (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, October 18, 2008

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'Gara-gara Bola': About urban life, not soccer

If you happen to be a huge soccer fan, be aware that Gara-Gara Bola (Because of Soccer) is not a soccer movie.

It is a comedy about two troubled young men in a world where only sex and money matters.

Directed by young newcomers Agasyah Karim and Khalid Kashogi, the 75-minute movie tells the story of Heru (Herjunot Ali), a cute but ill-tempered employee at a noodle restaurant, and his roommate Ahmad (Winky Wiryawan), a compulsive gambler who has a small-scale printing business.

They love soccer, but for different reasons: Heru enjoys playing the game, while Ahmad loves the game because he thinks he might be able to get rich from it through betting. However, Ahmad is neither smart nor lucky.

A day before the final match of the Euro 2006 competition, Ahmad and Heru find themselves owing Rp 20 million (about US$2,000) to the gaming mafia after betting for the Italian team, which was defeated by the rival German team in a semifinal match.

While being terrorized by two nasty debt collectors, the two buddies face another problem; the intrigue surrounding the noodle restaurant owned by Heru's unfaithful father, Bambang (played by comedian Tarzan).

Bambang has an illicit affair with the restaurant's manager, Mieke Asmara (Aida Nurmala), a wannabe dangdut singer who is also heavily in debt to the mafia.

Bambang fires Mieke after he finds a new girlfriend. But before he fires her, she asks permission from him to fire his son Heru from his job.

Ahmad is completely broke and Heru is jobless. Desperate to get the money to pay off their debt and angered by Bambang's attitude, they decide to rob his restaurant instead of borrowing money from him.

With a simple story line and fresh urban jokes, the film is hilariously entertaining for adult viewers.

"You don't have to think a lot to watch this film. It was not made to be analyzed but to be watched," Kashogi told the press before the screening at Blitz Megaplex on Thursday.

Gara-gara Bola is a debut for the two directors and also for Happy Ending Pictures production house, a sub-division of Kalyana Shira Films, which has produced Ca-bau-kan, Arisan! and Berbagi Suami (Love for Share).

"Happy Ending Pictures is committed to finding new talents in the Indonesian film industry who can produce fresh and creative movies that keep up with the trends in pop culture and modern cinema," the production's house co-founder, Nia Dinata, said.

Kashogi and Karim wrote the script in 2004 and had to wait for two years to find an investor who was interested in their project.

"It is a very light story. Some parts of it come from our personal experiences," they said in a press release.

Nia said Happy Ending Pictures would mostly produce teen movies aimed at viewers "younger than the viewers of the movies produced by Kalyana Shira Films".

"In 2007, the board of directors of Kalyana Shira Films decided to expand the scope of their viewers by starting to produce teen movies. We formed Happy Ending Pictures so we didn't have to change the genre of films produced by Kalyana," she said.

The film, however, is definitely not for all ages, as it, like many of Nia's films, portrays urban life boldly. Sex is therefore still the flavor that makes the film more appealing.

Young actress Laura Basuki, who plays a spoiled, rebellious and sexually active high school student who Heru dates, will definitely catch the viewers' attention.

Meanwhile, Aida's dangdut song with its corny, erotic lyrics and catchy melody -- featured at the beginning and end of the movie -- will likely stay in your head after you have left the cinema.

The film is scheduled to open in cinemas on Oct. 23.

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