I

t'€™s common to see certain objects or body parts blurred out in a movie, especially specific areas of the female body (around the breast or the thigh) or a scene depicting a horrific injury. It'€™s one of the duties of the Film Censorship Board (LSF) as stated in Government Regulation (PP) No. 7/1994 on the LSF, which stipulates that one of its tasks is to preserve Indonesia'€™s values and culture through the film industry. As you know, our culture is dictated by Eastern values, which prioritizes etiquette in dress.

My friend thinks that kind of censorship isn'€™t necessary because people know what'€™s being blurred out and if people don'€™t know, they can find it on the Internet. As a huge fan of movies, I can understand his view. Because most of the time, little things like inappropriate dress are censored but sexual scenes that appear in almost all Western movies pass censorship without being blurred or cut-out. That makes me wonder: What is the LSF benchmark for censorship? What are the aspects that allow a movie to pass censorship?

Last week, there was a photo that circulated among netizens. It showed scenes from Noah with words that read: Prohibited to be screened due to the movie content that is not in line with religious teachings in Indonesia. Under the words, there were scenes from many of Indonesia'€™s adult-horror movies that passed censorship even though the actresses could clearly be seen wearing nothing but underwear or other attire that accentuated their body.

This bothers me. Why are locally produced horror movies with weird names that show less horror but more sexuality of the actresses in the cast, allowed to be screened in the cinema? How about the graphic scenes of Western movies that I mentioned earlier or movies that include sexual relations?

Doesn'€™t that content jeopardize Indonesian morals and values more than the scenes in Noah?

The LSF appears to only show its teeth when a feature film based on a story from the Bible is produced and is banned based on blasphemy. Don'€™t you realize that there are many movies that have mocked God or a certain religion that have been viewed by a broad audience without protest? Let'€™s use Evan Almighty as a clear example, which was a comedy based on Noah'€™s Ark.

Devenni Putri Fau
Jakarta