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Sarumpaet bags two prizes at Vesoul
Ratna Sarumpaet (right) JP/Kunang HelmiVESOUL, France : The 16th edition of the Festival International du Cinéma d’Asie was well under way when the Indonesian film director Ratna Sarumpaet, better known for her theatrical work, arrived in France’s industrial town of Vesoul
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Ratna Sarumpaet (right) JP/Kunang Helmi
VESOUL, France : The 16th edition of the Festival International du Cinéma d’Asie was well under way when the Indonesian film director Ratna Sarumpaet, better known for her theatrical work, arrived in France’s industrial town of Vesoul.
Young schoolchildren, students and members of the general public were all enthralled by Ratna’s film Jamila dan Sang Presiden (Jamila and the President).
The discussions that ensued the two screenings of Jamila dan Sang Presiden were heated and long, with the contents of the movie shocking the French audience.
Fellow Asians are more or less accustomed to hearing about child trafficking and prostitution, Filipino director Milo — who also won a prize for his film Pawnshop — told The Jakarta Post, with films dealing with these issues often shown in Southeast Asian cinemas. However, the younger audiences in France were horrified, and justly so.
When Unicef asked Sarumpaet to undertake a survey on child trafficking in Indonesia, she was so touched she decided to make a film about the issue after her play.
For Asian film makers and journalists, it was no surprise when Ratna was awarded, the Prix du Publique and the Prix de jury lycéen for her movie Jamila came.
Experts in the audience criticized the overly theatrical acting of the Indonesian movie star (Ratna’s own daughter). They remarked that Southeast Asian films, in particular those from Indonesia, tended to be overdone when it came to acting.
Sarumpaet argued the content of the movie was more important, and that she had never said she was a professional film director in any case.
She added that the most important issue in Indonesia was the high level of poverty persisting in the country, which induced cruel behavior like selling one’s own child to survive.
The prize for the best documentary went to Jean-Paul Mignot’s film about Afghan kite flier Nasser, Le Joueur de cerf-volant, the director now lives in France and often flies to Bali to order kites made there.
— JP
