JP/Ika Krismantari

Meeting young director B.W. Purbanegara gives you hope that there is a future for Indonesia’s film industry.

There is nothing special about Purbanegara, or Popo as his friends call him. The soft-spoken man looks like any other Javanese.

A thick accent reinforces that impression. But there are many signs that tell you that he is no ordinary man.

From the outside, he definitely does not look mainstream. Always clad in dark suits, the young director stands out from the crowd with long hair that is always topped by a barrette.

His career choices are also equally unusual. As opposed to Jakarta, where most directors work, Popo prefers to give birth to movies in his hometown, Yogyakarta.

“I want to prove that you don’t have to move to Jakarta to be a successful director,” Popo said.

The city is more than a comfortable place to live for Popo. It’s an inspiring place to create. Despite numerous projects that may force him to leave home (the 27-year-old has made 10 films), Popo will always return to Yogyakarta.

One of his short films, Cheng Cheng Po, won a Citra award, Indonesia’s equivalent of an Academy Award, for best short film in 2008.

Cheng Cheng Po successfully presented the potentially heavy topic of multiculturalism in a simple,
effective way through its young characters.

The short tells the story of four children in Yogyakarta who help each other.

In the short, a poor Chinese boy who cannot afford his tuition receives helps from his friends from different cultural backgrounds.

While stereotypes would have us believe that the Chinese are the most powerful force in Indonesia’s economy, Popo’s film presents a different perspective.

“There are also poor Chinese out there,” he said.

The director’s different style can also be seen in his unusual selection of theme, including difficult subjects such as nationalism and multiculturalism.

Popo said he dreamed of becoming a director ever since he was in the third grade.

He liked to make simple flip-book animations in the margins of his school notebooks. His obsession grew stronger after his mother took him to the movies.

“I was amazed how the picture could move on that giant screen…and that’s the first time I wanted to become a director,” he said.

Popo started to live his dream when in high school. He and a group of like-minded friends formed Kelompok 56 (Group 56) to learn all they could about movies, making short movies from scratch on shoestring budgets.

After high school, he studied philosophy at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta. “From philosophy I learned from different perspectives. That kind of knowledge is important in film directing.”

For Popo, movies are a way to reflect the political and social conditions and perhaps trigger social awareness to find solutions. His ultimate dream is to contribute to society through film.

Despite his start in narrative shorts, Popo said documentaries were his first love.

“I knew nothing about directing before,” Popo said. He learned the basics of filmmaking from watching documentaries, including the films of Dutch filmmakers Leonard Retel Hemrich and France Nicolas Philibert, taught him the basics.

Documentaries led Popo abroad. His latest documentary, Musafir (The Wanderers), took him to Germany after it was selected for the screening in the Berlin International Film Festival.

Currently, Popo is developing a short film titled Say Hello to Yellow, which will explore the conflict between modern and traditional values through the perspective of children.

Popo continues to make his dream come true, creating narratives and documentaries that hew to a different vision, outside Jakarta and outside the studio system.

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