Guardian Spirit: Dancers perform barong on a stage at Batubulan. Barong is believed to be the guardian spirit that protects villages from plagues and demons. (Courtesy of Menarung Jiwani)

A stunning movie gives an insider’s perspective on barong: the island’s guardian spirit and one of its most iconic dances.

Oka Rusmini gasped audibly as the screen revealed a tranquil scene of the movie’s protagonist walking along a narrow deserted road. The tall frangipani trees that line up beside the road cast their shadows upon the rustic wall of an ancient temple.

Rusmini leaned forward and adjusted her eyeglasses before stating in a soft, but clearly excited voice.

“That image is so wonderful. I believe that beautiful images and carefully shot scenes are the key strength of this movie,” she said.

Rusmini, who won national and international recognition for her poems and novels on the struggle of Balinese women in balancing traditional values with modern challenges, was one of community figures invited to attend the screening of Menarung Jiwani, a 40-minute-long feature film produced by young Balinese filmmakers.

The public screening took place from mid-September to early October at the Denpasar Cineplex, making it one of only a handful of locally produced films that has been shown in the movie theater chain. Denpasar Mayor Rai Mantra, a strong supporter of the local creative industry, attended the premiere’s first day and praised it as an important milestone.

Menarung Jiwani, which literally means internal struggle, narrates the story of two childhood friends who grew up to join a powerful team of barong dancers. Wayan is a soft-spoken, charming young man respected by his peers for his mastery of animating the head part of the barong. Nyoman, on the other hand, has always been assigned to play the hind section.

Old Wisdom: Grandpa Raos shows a barong mask to Nyoman (left) and Wayan (far right) while reminding them that it takes two persons to perform the dance.

An introverted guy, Nyoman harbors a desire to play the front part of the costume. Believing that he could animate the barong’s head as skillfully as Wayan, Nyoman pursues his wish relentlessly, the fact that provides the movie with its main tension and dramatic conflict.

Barong is an iconic entity in both the island’s belief system and performing arts. Most village temples in southern Bali have a sacred effigy in the form of a barong. The effigy usually has a tiger-like face adorned with a majestic crown, thick flowing fur and an elaborately decorated tail.

The Balinese believe that the effigy is the physical representation of Banaspati Raja, a very powerful supernatural beast that roams the island’s ravines and jungles. The beast is responsible for protecting villages from both physical plagues and supernatural threats.

In the island’s traditional performing art, barong is the representation of virtue and usually takes the protagonist role in the eternal battle against the witch queen Rangda. The battle between barong and Rangda, famously known as the barong and kris dance, is one of the island’s most popular tourist attractions. The length and sheer weight of a barong requires two strong male dancers to bring it to life.

Menarung Jiwani beautifully captures the energy and passion demanded by this performing art. Animating a weighty barong for 30 minutes is surely not an easy task. It displays an art-film quality with its thoughtful framings, gorgeous shots and consistent color scheme, as well as the integration of Bali’s traditional musical elements.

The storyline, however, could have benefited from additional background story to give Wayan and
Nyoman stronger credibility, as well as to form a more intense conflict. That Wayan calmly agrees to switch roles with Nyoman just a few days before a critical barong dance competition and against the objections of the rest of his barong troupe somehow diminished the movie’s dramatic climax.

Despite those flaws, Menarung Jiwani provided the audience with an insider’s perspective on barong. Most of the movies about Bali have been created by non-Balinese filmmakers and to a certain extent they do not reflect the way the Balinese view their own culture and their own selves.

“When I was 5 years old my father gave me a gift. It was a barong mask. I performed barong in the children’s troupe and in my teenage years one of my close friends was an accomplished barong dancer. I have always wanted to make a movie about barong,” Menarung Jiwani’s director Rai Pendet said.

The 25-year-old director, who studied cinema at the Indonesia Arts Institute (ISI) in Yogyakarta and at Limkokwing University in Kuala Lumpur, treated Menarung Jiwani more as a cultural project than a commercial venture.

“I want the movie to be a collaborative project of young Balinese filmmakers, a platform for us to meet up and share our thoughts and concerns over our culture,” he said.

He succeeded in that point. Rai wrote the script, Deny Krisna was the director of photography, Andika Danapratama was the director of art and Putu Aditya the lead editor, while Mankjay Dananjaya acted as the producer. All are Balinese less than 30 years old. Nearly all crew and cast members are Balinese. Only the audio man is non-Balinese.

Rai also insisted that Menarung Jiwani must be in Balinese with Bahasa Indonesia subtitles.

“I believe that language is the repository of culture. Preserving the language is the sure way to conserve the culture,” he said.

Preproduction started in December 2015 while filming took place for six days in April 2016 in five locations in Ubud, Singapadu and Batubulan. During the production stage, Rai and his team received generous assistance from Sanggar Cudamani, a famed dance troupe from Pengosekan, from Sanggar Paripurna of Bona, the barong troupe of Batubulan village, and from Orlando Bassi of the Movie Studio Bali, which provided all the filming equipment, including the RED Epic digital cinema camera.

“Through this movie, I just want to prove that young Balinese filmmakers have what it takes to create a high-quality movie,” Rai said.

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