True bonding: A scene from the Keluarga Cemara family movie. (Visinema Pictures)

Family films are expected to include a heartwarming plot, broad humor for children and life lessons for all. Keluarga Cemara, a screen adaptation of a popular television series that aired in the 1990s based on a novel by Arswendo Atmowiloto, combines all this without many surprises.

Directed by Yandy Laurens, the film follows the story of Abah (Ringgo Agus Rahman) and his family. After going bankrupt, Abah moves his wife Emak (Nirina Zubir) and their two daughters Euis (JKT48 member Adhisty Zara) and Cemara, nicknamed Ara, (Widuri Putri Sasono) from Jakarta to a small village near Bogor, West Java.

Struggling financially, Abah is willing to do anything to feed his family. Realizing this, the loving and wise Emak tries her best to help Abah by selling opak (Sundanese corn-flour chips). Happy-go-lucky Ara has an easy time adapting to the new situation. However, things are not so easy for Euis. The teenage girl has to leave her friends and move to a new school that is worlds apart from her previous one.

Although Keluarga Cemara does not offer anything new, the movie is quite enjoyable. The plot moves smoothly, each issue discussed one by one. Once in a while, Ceu Salmah (Asri Welas) appears on screen to deliver a dose of humor.

Similar to the series, the film discusses Indonesian family values, including togetherness, simplicity and the true meaning of family. Some parts of the story have been modified to make it more relevant to the current era; in the new version, although we can see becak (pedicab) on the screen, Abah is not a becak driver and there is a scene in which Euis climbs a tree to get cell phone signal.

Yandy said during a press conference, as quoted by kompas.com, that Arswendo actually gave him the freedom to explore the story. However, Yandy decided to keep opak and becak to bring nostalgic feelings to the film.

In regard to character development, scriptwriters Yandy and Gina S. Noer focused more on Abah and Euis among the characters. An ordinary guy, Abah made bad decisions, but he’s hardly a bad person. Meanwhile, Euis is a representation of a modern teenage girl in the digital age. A good girl at heart, she just needs more time to understand her family’s new situation.

Ringgo and Zara did a great job in portraying the two characters. They demonstrated the difficulty in the father-daughter relationship. Their chemistry was quite strong and the audience could feel their hopelessness while trying to understand one another.

Let’s not forget about Ara and Emak. The two characters make the film livelier. Nirina appeared as a warm mother, while Widuri naturally portrayed Ara’s bubbly personality.

Widuri told The Jakarta Post that she was grateful to be involved in the movie.

“I was shy when I first met ‘teteh’ [older sister Euis], Emak and Abah. However, since we practiced [the script] together, we became like a family,” she said, adding she learned from the film that she should not easily get angry with her parents.

Plot-wise, the story is quite predictable. However, Yandy and Gina added a sensitive topic to the mix: menstruation. This issue rarely appears in local films and not every woman is comfortable speaking about it. However, the plot discusses it lightly and contains information that can be easily understood by teenage girls.

Widuri also said the menstruation scene was one of the family values she learned from the movie. “About menstruation, I [shouldn’t] hate my family [when it happens],” she said, referring to the hormonal changes she might experience during premenstrual syndrome.

All in all, Keluarga Cemara is a typical family film. However, its life lessons make it worth the watch, especially if you watch it with your teenage daughter.

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