R

eading The Sunday Post’s full-page feature about the highly anticipated Harry Potter film felt like a blow to the gut. I have been waiting for over a year for this release of this movie, and to be reminded that this was probably not going to be possible in the place I call home saddens me greatly.

When I first heard about the Hollywood boycott in February this year, I didn’t think it would be in place for months. I thought that the government would at least have resolved or lightened the tax obligations to allow the summer flicks in by then.

Surely this would bring in some much-needed revenue for the cinemas.

I don’t pretend to know their motives, but their decision to effectively push away Hollywood releases seems like a rash and not very well-thought-out one.

According to reports, film distributors throughout the nation are currently suffering losses due to empty theaters and customer dissatisfaction with lower quality productions.

If they were hoping that the local film industry could have gained from the withdrawal of foreign movies, their plan has undoubtedly backfired. Most people would rather purchase cheap, pirated DVDs than face the horrors (no pun intended) that await them at the theaters.

I am sure that many other fans of Cars, Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean have also been let down by the absence of their respective sequels.

The Harry Potter books have shaped me into what I have become now, and I have been waiting for the final film installment since I first read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 2004.

What should have been a bittersweet moment for myself and Potter fans in Indonesia will be another disappointment.

Sherly
Tangerang, Banten