When words are not enough to understand Kartini, photos and film may explain better.

Legendary actress Christine Hakim has conquered a wide range of roles across dozens of films since beginning her career in 1973, but still faced challenges playing MA Ngasirah, the mother of Indonesian heroine Raden Ajeng Kartini.

Directed by Hanung Bramantyo, the biopic film Kartini forced Christine to restrain her ego to adapt to her role as Ngasirah, Jepara regent Ario Sosroningrat’s concubine, who faced unfair treatment because she was not from a noble family.   

“As a cast member, this was the first time I felt I was a slave,” she said, laughing.

Christine, and some of her fellow Kartini cast members, revealed the behind-the-scene stories of the film during the book launch of Di Balik Layar Film Kartini: Kumpulan Foto dan Cerita (Behind the Scenes of Kartini: A Collection of Photos and Stories) at the Galeri Indonesia Kaya auditorium in Grand Indonesia shopping mall in Central Jakarta.   

Published by Grasindo, the book contains 115 behind-the-scene photos and stories from the film-making process, which took 45 days to complete.

During the launch, Christine, actresses Acha Septriasa and Ayu Diah Pasha as well as singer Gita Gutawa read the letters of Kartini, an icon of female emancipation.     

Through her letters, Kartini, who was born to an aristocratic Javanese family in Jepara, Central Java in 1879, spoke of the prevailing social conditions, particularly discrimination against women, in her country, which was then known as the Dutch East Indies.  

She believed that women also deserved the right to study and be involved in public life, thoughts deemed unusual at the time.  

Kartini, who dreamed of studying in the Netherlands and establishing schools for women, also expressed her disapproval of polygamy in her letters. However, when her parents arranged her marriage to Rembang regent Djojo Adhiningrat, who already had three wives, she acquiesced, a decision that still sparks controversy today.  

Kartini, who died in 1904 at the age of 25 after giving birth to her first child, was declared a national heroine by the late president Sukarno in 1964.

For Ayu, Kartini deserves the title. In her view, Kartini sacrificed herself by accepting the marriage with the regent in order to benefit many other people. By becoming the regent’s wife, she would have the power to establish schools for women.

“[Before the wedding], she stipulated three conditions. First, she wanted to be allowed to continue her studies in Batavia. Second, she wanted the freedom to do what she wanted. Third, she wanted to be allowed to open schools for indigenous women,” Ayu said.

Before Hanung, other directors had already brought the story of Kartini to the big screen, namely Sjuman Djaja with RA Kartini in 1982 and Azhar Lubis with Surat Cinta Untuk Kartini (Love Letter to Kartini) in 2016.

In Hanung’s Kartini, actress Dian Sastrowardoyo plays the heroine.  

“Kartini must be played by someone who is not only an actress but also an icon. When we met Dian for the first time, we felt she was the perfect fit to be Kartini. She adores her and already understands her thoughts,” said Robert Ronny, the CEO of Legacy Pictures.

The idea to produce Kartini came to his mind when he met Hanung in 2014. Before the production started, his team conducted two years of research.

“After researching for two years, we discovered many surprising things about Kartini that people do not know,” he said. “Kartini was a tomboy. She was advanced, structured and modern. We want to highlight this side of her in this film.”  

Acha, who plays Roekmini, the younger sister of Kartini, said that she was over the moon when cast to star in Kartini in December 2015, especially because she would get the opportunity to work with her idol, Dian.

“I wanted to become a movie star ever since watching Dian’s movie in 2002,” she said.

Acha said she read Kartini’s letters to explore her role as Roekmini, who always defended her older sister.

“Roekmini was a thinker, who was open-minded and humble, but she rarely talked,” she said. “She always defended her sister and her thoughts.”  

Christine hopes that Kartini, which hit theaters on April 19, will help people gain a better understanding of history.    

She admitted that before taking part in the movie, she thought Kartini had failed to fight for her ideas, especially after tying the knot with the Rembang regent.

“To be honest, I did not adore Kartini. She was not my inspiration. But, later I realized that I was wrong. This film has changed my views on her,” she said.

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