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Nurman Hakim and Nan Achnas: Fighting against censorship
JP/Cynthia Webb"I am working on a movie about a road trip," Nurman Hakim said, while drinking coffee at a leafy courtyard caf* in Point Danger, a steep headland on the border between the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales
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JP/Cynthia Webb
"I am working on a movie about a road trip," Nurman Hakim said, while drinking coffee at a leafy courtyard caf* in Point Danger, a steep headland on the border between the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales.
"It's about a 750-kilometer road trip from Jakarta to Sidoarjo, the home of one of the protagonists, and involves the Lapindo mudflow catastrophe."
This film about travel in a way reflects their current life as leading filmmakers in Indonesia's burgeoning movie industry.
"We travel a lot - usually to film festivals," said Nan. "In December we will go to the Dubai Film Festival. Hakim's new short film *entitled Silent Wait* has been entered into the competition."
"It's inspired by Waiting For Godot," explained Hakim, adding that the movie is about a man and a woman who are both waiting for their spouses to return.
Hakim and Nan attended this year's Asia Pacific Screen Awards in the Gold Coast, as their film, 3 Doa 3 Cinta (3 Wishes 3 Loves), starring Nicholas Saputra, Dian Sastrowardoyo, Yoga Pratama and Yoga Bagus Satatagama was nominated in the Best Children's Feature Film category.
Seven Indonesian films were submitted but only one made it through to the final list of nominations.
Although the award in that category went to A Brand New Life, from The Republic of Korea, the quality of the Indonesian film held its own well amongst the strong competition.
A crew of 30 helped shot 3 Doa 3 Cinta in Pesantren Pabelan, Magelang, and in Yogyakarta, in just 16 days, with Hakim managing to keep to the tight schedule by editing the film in his head before shooting.
Set in 2001, the film tells the story of three teenagers, who live and study in a traditional style Pesantren. Nurman Hakim's script incorporates quite a few topical issues pertaining to Java, such as Islamic hard-liners, polygamy and poverty.
Many people think the character named Rian is based on Nurman Hakim. But Nurman, who spent three years in Pesantren Mranggen in Demak, retorted that only 10 percent of the character was based on him.
His own experience in a Pesantren was overall a positive one.
"I think the Pesantren education gave me many things. Good friends, a social life, and it taught me to be more tolerant and a good Muslim."
He also confirmed he had never been in contact with hard-line Islamic ideas, as happens to the main characters in the film.
"No. Those people *hard-liners* are almost always outsiders. They are not part of any Pesantren."
Nan Achnas and Nurman Hakim were both very concerned about the new laws affecting the Indonesian industry.
"When I made Kuldesak *1999*, my script did not require approval, and none of the crew belonged to the film union. Now we have to be in the system and restrictions apply to the films we make.
I think there may be another vacuum in Indonesia's film industry, when no one will want to make films. In Indonesia the censor board consists of retired bureaucrats, religious and ex-army leaders, and so on.
"Several scenes of 3 Doa, 3 Cinta were given the chop, one line in the dialogue was cut, and we visited the censor's office about three times, to fight to retain it," Nan said.
In the film, the hard-line Muslim preacher ends a discussion with his students about a verse by saying: "That is why it is allowed to spill the blood of the infidel Jews and Christians."
"The censors didn't realize it was an important part of the dialogue structure since it has a powerful influence on one of the characters. The dialogue comes just after the opening scene where Kyai Wahab tells them quite the opposite.
"Perhaps the censors did not watch the entire film, or perhaps they just don't understand film technique," Nan concluded.
Nan Achnas and Hakim agreed the Ministry of Culture had not been very helpful. "They don't do much - nothing actually."
Nan Achnas explained that she really appreciated APSA, and the fact that it was possible to submit a film independently, as well as through each country's national film producers' organizations.
"We are not members of PPFI *Persatuan Produser Film Indonesia*. We had to provide a lot of information and backup credentials for the film though. APSA is a great opportunity for all Asia Pacific films to be acknowledged and screened - it's a great idea.
"But making a movie in a country flooded with cheap pirated DVDs, where very few respect copyright laws is not always easy," Nan said.
"Profits come from ticket sales when the movie is released in cinemas. Once the DVD comes out, it's over. A small budget film costs about US$400,000, while a big budget one is double that. Unless it's a box office hit, it's very difficult to break even in such a short amount of time."
