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Angga Sasongko: A Jakarta boy enchanted by regional wisdom
(JP/Hans David)In his latest film, filmmaker Angga Dwimas Sasongko makes Jakarta the enemy
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(JP/Hans David) (JP/Hans David)
(JP/Hans David)
In his latest film, filmmaker Angga Dwimas Sasongko makes Jakarta the enemy.
Throughout the film, Cahaya Dari Timur (Light From The East), he tries to break down the pro-unity nationalist arrogance of many local films.
Angga translates this thought-provoking idea about the importance of local identity in the film, which revolves around the true story of Sani Taiwanella ' a coach from the remote region of Tulehu in Maluku who took local children from his village, against all odds, to defeat Jakarta kids in a national U-15 soccer tournament.
'I clearly want to show that Jakarta is the enemy in this movie,' the 29-year-old told The Jakarta Post.
'Their players have better gear, [but] they cheat when they face the kids from Maluku and the referee, who represents the government, favors the Jakartans in his decisions,' Angga says. 'Yet, despite all of this, the kids from Maluku manage to come out victorious and refuse to bow down to the arrogance of Jakarta.'
Angga's motivation to produce a movie that takes aim at the central government, as represented by Jakarta and Java, was triggered during a life-changing event in 2007, when he visited Maluku to create a documentary.
'There was an Asian Cup Event and Nike hired me to produce a soccer documentary in Indonesia. Former Persija soccer club coach Iwan Setiawan told me to go to Tulehu. He said Tulehu is well known as the 'village of soccer players' because it has produced so many players for the national team,' Angga said.
'I went there and I met an ojek [motorcycle taxi] driver named Sani, who becomes the central figure in my movie. I hired him for 10 days to take me around.'
He continues. 'We interacted a lot and I got to know about his story. About how he, a regular ojek driver who nobody would even notice, took the village boys from Tulehu to win a tournament in Jakarta,'
Sani started coaching local kids in 2000 to prevent them from getting involved in frequent conflicts between Muslims and the Christians in Maluku.
The three years of sectarian conflicts in Maluku that started in 1999 claimed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands ' and left permanent scars and trauma among the people.
'Meeting Sani has changed my life and how I see things,' Angga says. 'His story taught me, a Jakarta boy, a lot about social issues and local identities in remote regions. After I heard his story, I knew it would be good movie material that hopefully could affect many people.'
After meeting Sani, Angga said he felt the need to do more for people in the regions that are barely touched by Jakarta.
In 2010, Angga spent months volunteering ' helping the tsunami victims in Mentawai, West Sumatra. Two years later, he initiated a movement called the Indonesian Smart Cabin (Pondasi) movement that develops libraries in remote islands across the archipelago.
Frequent interaction with Sani and others developed into a fascination, making Angga start questioning whether his values of happiness as a Jakartan were indeed superior, as he had assumed.
Angga said he believed people living in remote regions had their own values of happiness and Jakartans or those living in big cities should stop pushing their morals on them ' a message he tries to deliver through the film.
Producing Cahaya Dari Timur, however, was not an easy task for Angga, who previously worked on several urban love stories and a horror flick.
'Cahaya Dari Timur is far more complex in terms of issues and production scale compared to my previous movie, Hari Untuk Amanda [A Day for Amanda],' Angga says.
He said he found it hard to find a production house to back the movie. 'They all thought the movie was too sensitive as it discussed religious conflict and it was not commercial enough,' he says.
Angga managed to gain support from singer Glenn Fredly to produce Cahaya Dari Timur. Their collaboration led to the movie's premiere on June 9 at the Djakarta Theater's XXI Cinema.
'Many local movies about regional issues have been produced lately but all of them use a centralized perspective,' Angga says. 'They are too red-and-white [the colors of the Indonesian flag] ' do not touch the issues related to local identities and values,' he said. 'The concept of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia State has devalued the identity differences that we have as a diversified nation.'
He said people need to know that Indonesia could not be seen using only the moral perspectives of Jakarta or Java. 'They need to know the perspective of the people in Maluku and other regions as well,' he says.
Cahaya Dari Timur, he said, was his pilot project to test Indonesian audience's reactions towards a movie that touches sensitive issues. If it receives a warm response, he said he will produce more.
'A movie that I am planning to release will focus on the Rengasdengklok incident,' Angga says, referring to the so-called kidnapping of Sukarno and Hatta by young patriots in 1945 to accelerate the nation's proclamation of independence.
'This movie will make people ask questions,' Angga says. 'It is about the possibility of a second proclamation draft, in which Sukarno thanked the Japanese for the independence that we now have.'
