After the premiere of Rindu Kami Padamu (Of Love and Eggs) in 2004, filmmaker Garin Nugroho got a call from his mother asking whether the film was a tribute to her. He reluctantly affirmed.

“Don’t make a film for me, make it for yourself to calm your mind. If you are restful, then so I am,” said his mother as cited by Garin at Goethe-Institute Indonesien’s Arthouse Cinema: Extra program in Jakarta on Aug. 27.

In the discussion with the audience between the screenings of his two latest films — Kucumbu Tubuh Indahku (Memories of My Body) and Nyai — the 58-year-old filmmaker acknowledged that all of his films reflected his restlessness over an issue or more at the corresponding time.

Rindu, for example, was created after the case surrounding teenage comedy Buruan Cium Gue (Hurry Up and Kiss Me), which was later banned from theaters because the title irked some Muslim clerics.

His first commercial feature film Cinta Dalam Sepotong Roti (Love in a Slice of Bread) was made during the authoritarian New Order regime in 1991 to show how apathetic the young generation was at that time.

Surat untuk Bidadari (Letter to an Angel) in 1994, the original story of which was later developed into Mouly Surya’s internationally acclaimed 2017 film Marlina si Pembunuh dalam Empat Babak (Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts), was Garin’s harsh comment on the government’s Javanese-centric policy that swept away local wisdom and cultures in other parts of the country.

“To survive in the forced peaceful country, you have to stay ‘crazy’. But make sure the craziness is measurable,” Garin quipped. “The films I made are ‘rare’ products, hence the scarce audience.”

Although Garin and his films received accolades from foreign film communities, the only time he was awarded Best Director at home was at Tempo Film Festival last year for Kucumbu.

The event titled “Step by Step: 38 Years of Garin Nugroho’s Filmmaking” appraised the director’s works which, according to many film critics, had a different style every time as if it was an instinctive follow-up to the story or the theme.

The cospeaker in the discussion, Ifan Ismail, an award-winning screenwriter and programmer at Kineforum, said Garin’s film style in Cinta dalam Sepotong Roti was the complete opposite of the regular film style adopted by Indonesian filmmakers at that time.

“The style at that time was derived from theater culture that we could see from the camera angle, the acting and so on. But ‘Cinta’ was the first that explored visual esthetics and it worked,” said Ifan.

The road film, also written by Garin, won the Citra Award for Best Film at the Indonesia Film Festival in the same year.

However, according to Garin, not all of the techniques applied in his films were thought through. Bulan Tertusuk Ilalang (And the Moon Dances, 1995), he said, was his first encounter with digital film and that forced him to make some adjustments to the film during the editing process.

“I wanted the colors to be blown up but at the cost of faulty sound. I decided to take away most of the lines and focused on the visuals,” he explained.

The film won the FIPRESCI Prize Forum of New Cinema at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1996.

Garin’s three last offerings, which currently are still scheduled for screenings abroad, also each have distinctive styles.

Setan Jawa (The Javanese Devil, 2017) is a black-and-white silent movie screened with the accompaniment of a live gamelan orchestra, while Kucumbu is a pseudo-documentary of Japan-based dancer and choreographer Rianto.

Nyai, on the other hand, is Garin’s latest experiment in applying the principles of live theater on the silver screen by recording the entire 90 minutes in a single shot. However, it would never be screened at the cinema, because he wanted to test out the capability of the film communities in the distribution of the film.

Despite the different form and style, there were at least two regular characteristics to his films that made them artsy and at the same time, edgy.

“There is blood and violence in all of my films because I always witness and experience violence in my surroundings. Such scenes actually made each of my films a micro Indonesia,” said Garin.

The other characteristic was that some of his films did not have detailed scripts, but all of them were made based on long and thorough research.

“I work with maestros as actors. I cast them long before I know what to do with their talents, but I always suggest they learn a particular skill. So when I am ready to film, they are also ready.”

Beside Kucumbu, which was accused of promoting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT), with his knack for tackling sensitive issues Garin often stood at the center of controversies regarding his films, in which his protesters questioned his religiosity.

And just like before, as his response, Garin would return like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, preparing a script — this time the film would be helmed by someone else — titled “99 Names of Allah”. It would follow a young, hardline Muslim preacher who falls for a girl running a gossip TV program.

“We have to be able to develop a curious mind and the ability to read behind the lines. Your restlessness will fuel your creativity no matter what the result is. Besides, life is not a life without suspense and surprises,” said Garin. (ste)

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