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'Aroma of Heaven': Romancing the coffee bean
(Courtesy Kopi Biji Indonesia)A new documentary on coffee culture in Indonesia gives a caffeine jolt to the nationâs consciousness
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(Courtesy Kopi Biji Indonesia) (Courtesy Kopi Biji Indonesia)
(Courtesy Kopi Biji Indonesia)
A new documentary on coffee culture in Indonesia gives a caffeine jolt to the nation's consciousness.
Aroma of Heaven, originally titled Biji Kopi Indonesia (Indonesian Coffee Beans), is doing so by trying to deconstruct the general perception of what's really inside the proverbial cup of joe.
'I prefer to describe [the documentary] as a visual storytelling on the history of the long-existing coffee culture in the country that has been overshadowed by mushrooming coffee chain stores,' director Budi Kurniawan said on the sidelines of the documentary's premier on Tuesday.
And what a story it's telling.
Coffee's history in Indonesia dates to the early 18th century during the Dutch occupation. The oldest written record on the habit of locals sipping the drink was penned in Serat Centhini, the script written by Javanese nobles.
Forests were cleared and roads built to make way for the missionaries and businessmen opening vast coffee plantations that stretched from the far north of Sumatra to the far-flung Nusa Tenggara.
The largest plantations were in Java.
All that made Indonesia the largest supplier of coffee to European countries for centuries. The region produced to two-thirds of the world's coffee and made Sunda Kelapa port in Batavia, the old Jakarta, the busiest hub in the region ' perhaps that was where the term 'a cup of Java' came from.
The exported beans also excelled in quality, as the plantations were located in the rich soil of volcanic area.
Coffee is the life of the Gayo and Manggarai ethnic groups, as shown in the documentary.
Gayo people have customary rituals for a wedding between Siti Kahwa, a name they gave to coffee plants, and the wind, to encourage pollination.
Meanwhile, at the far end of the archipelago, the Manggarai people hold all-night ceremonies before picking the ripening beans and sing to the plants during harvesting.
But other than the cultural beliefs they fostered, the Dutch-imposed plantations didn't give much back.
The high quality beans remained elusive in the households, which received about 60 US cents for each kilogram they sold to the traders.
People consumed leftover and bad seeds, mixing them with corn ' or just bought low-grade ground coffee exported from other countries, such as Vietnam.
'Another way of describing the situation is that it is similar to selling bananas and use the money to buy banana fritters,' said Mahdi Usati, a Gayo coffee appraiser.
The 65-minute documentary was a collaborative work of people who shared the same concern for documenting the nation's treasures.
He spent four years on literature research before taking three years to shoot the film.
It contains interviews with the farmers ' including Gayo native Mustasarun, who planted 136 varieties of coffee in his backyard; professional cuppers such as Toni Wahid and Tuti Mochtar; as well as experts at the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute such as Surip Mawardi and anthropologist Pujo Semedi Hargo Yuwono.
The producers are Papang Lakey from Film Traffic Indonesia and moviemaker Nicholas Yudifar, who also discussed their emotional and financial burden in making the documentary.
'We have a bigger room to express ourselves in documentaries, rather than creating a fictional feature movie. Let's say that we are doing this for reference to the next generations,' said Nicholas.
The documentary, currently playing at Blitz Megaplex theaters, was made in cooperation with the state's film company Produksi Film Negara (PFN), which is making its first film after a decade of dormancy.
PFN chief Shelvy Arifin said that the company has a mission to be involved in the nation's character building by investing in documenting local wisdom and civilization.
'The documentation on coffee culture fits with our mission and the issue itself needs attention from wider public,' she said.
The film, she said, would be brought on a road show across the country and international film festivals. Aroma of Heaven was included in non-competition screenings at the Cannes Film Festival last month.
Budi expressed hopes that just like the thick scent of freshly brewed coffee, the documentary could serve as a wake-up call for coffee lovers in the country so that they could be aware of the kind of drink they are imbibing.
Or, as Manggarai native Heribertus Arman put it: 'The Manggarai coffee has lost its identity as soon as they were sold to traders, the value in the coffee, the life of the farmers were all gone. And coffee consumers at one point, I think, have to ponder on the origin of the coffee they drink and the hands that grow it.'
Aroma of Heaven
(Biji Kopi Indonesia)
Director: Budi Kurniawan
Producer: Produksi Film Negara, Papang Lakey, Nicholas Yudifar
Running time: 65 minutes
