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Hanung Bramantyo: Interpreting independence
Ario Bayu as Sukarno in Soekarno: Indonesia Merdeka! (Filmsukarno
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Ario Bayu as Sukarno in Soekarno: Indonesia Merdeka! (Filmsukarno.com) (Filmsukarno.com)
Ario Bayu as Sukarno in Soekarno: Indonesia Merdeka! (Filmsukarno.com)
Film director and box-office hitmaker Hanung Bramantyo is back with Soekarno: Indonesia Merdeka!
(Soekarno: Free Indonesia!), a history-based feature film that depicts how Indonesia earns its independence in 1945.
The film was shot in West Java, Central Java and Yogyakarta. The final scenes were done in the Bogor Botanical Gardens. The Jakarta Post interviewed Hanung to discuss the project.
Question: Can you tell us about your current film production?
Answer: Today's the last shooting day of our 70-day production. The film focuses on the proclamation [of Indonesia's independence]. It portrays Sukarno [also spelled as Soekarno and played by Ario Bayu], Mohammad Hatta [Lukman Sardi] and Sutan Sjahrir [Tanta Ginting] as three different characters that have the same mission: bringing about freedom for Indonesia.
The film doesn't focus on the three as representatives of their respective political parties or even as individuals, but rather on [how they worked together to] liberate Indonesia [from colonialism]. Thus, the film is set between 1920 and 1945.
Why Indonesia had to be independent ' that is the main question of the film.
Most of our history textbooks tell us about the colonization of Indonesia, and we see the Japanese and Dutch colonists as antagonists, but the fact of the matter is that we don't really know what happened at that time.
Where did you get the idea from?
If we didn't have Soekarno-Hatta as one of our main international airports, I don't think that young Indonesians would know those names. Even Sjahrir, I believe most of us know only as a street name.
We'd like to bring those three characters to life to give young people a portrait or a mirror for inspiration. Sukarno, Hatta and Sjahrir were real people who did the best they could to make Indonesia an independent nation.
With the current political climate, I've learned that most of our leaders have reduced their commitment to the nation. This film becomes important because it will inspire Indonesian people, showing them that once we did have great national figures.
How did you gather up the cast?
It was surely a challenging moment for me because, honestly, Indonesian cinema is having a real crisis of human resources, including good actors. After searching for some time, we still couldn't find the right actor.
And then we saw Ario. He was involved in Java Heat [which features Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke] and in Dead Mine [HBO Asia's first feature film]. We were interested in signing him up for a casting session, but we were also a bit worried that he would refuse to the audition because of his international portfolio.
So we built a mock-up set and formally invited Ario and several other actors for a recasting. We went all out. I hired a makeup artist and costumes were put together.
I chose Ario because he qualifies in terms of physical resemblance ' Sukarno was 172 to 176 cm tall and had facial features quite similar to Ario's ' and he also has good acting skills and is quite popular.
We had to spend one month finding the right actor to play Sukarno, and I had to scrap three previous choices before I eventually went with Ario.
It took four months getting the perfect cast for the five main characters ' Sukarno, Hatta, Sjahrir, Inggit Ganarsih [Maudy Koesnadi] and Fatmawati [Tika Bravani].
But once those actors were dressed up and put together on a particular set, they became the real characters. Ario, Lukman, all of them transformed into Sukarno, Hatta, Sjahrir, Inggit and Fatmawati.
I even got goosebumps when I saw them acting on my monitor screen, because they were so real!
Are you a fan of Sukarno?
Actually, I'm more a fan of Sjahrir or Tan Malaka. Nevertheless, the nation needs heroes. Like it or not, Sukarno and Hatta are our heroes.
What are your expectations for the film?
When I told people that I was about to make a film about Sukarno, they took to it instantly and said that it would be a cool feature film. Or when my crew's family members asked them what project they were working on, once they heard Sukarno, it was like a light bulb switched on.
That's the kind of spirit that this nation needs right now.
