2014 was a very transient year for Indonesian cinema, in terms of production, distribution, and management. Despite the country undergoing an important political turnaround last year, with the election of Joko Widodo as President, the wind of change and renewal doesn’t seem to have affected the film industry yet.
Even though, as is the norm, there are no reliable statistics to carry out an in-depth analysis of the local box-office figures, industry experts seem to agree that 2014 was a sluggish year. Despite growth in the number of multi-screen cinemas, driven by Korean conglomerates CJ and Lotte entering Indonesia, ticket sales don’t seem to have increased proportionally. The local public’s lack of enthusiasm seems to have affected local productions as much as the Hollywood blockbusters.
With regards to homegrown films, there is no doubt that the fundamental problem is the poor quality of local productions. Unfortunately, the majority of the hundreds of films produced and distributed in 2014 were far too formulaic, and local producers seem unwilling to use the intuition or initiative necessary to shake things up. So it is no surprise that Indonesian audiences have a lacklustre response to the trio of genres which every year make up the backbone of local production: horror, teen or post-teen rom-coms, or dramas and films on religious Islamic subjects (often adapted from bestsellers).
To make the pill even harder to swallow, the most “innovative” trend has been to transpose the above-mentioned formulas to locations abroad, mainly other Asian countries or in Europe. This “exoticism” seems to be enough to satisfy the whims of local producers who want to diversify their product.
While it is true that not much can be expected from these productions in terms of intrinsic quality and audience appreciation, the thing that is truly disappointing is the underwhelming performance of the more ambitious releases. Raid 2: Berendal was successful, but it hardly set the local box-office aflame, as many predicted. The costly attempt to revive the martial arts film tradition, with The Golden Cane Warrior (Pendekar Tongkat Emas) did even worse. Despite an end of year, nationwide release, Ifa Isfansyah’s film was a major flop, as it failed to find favour with the local public.
Leaving aside commercial success, the litmus test of the best of local productions can be seen in the results of the national Indonesia Film Festival 2014 awards. The main winners, Cahaya dari Timur: Beta Maluku by Angga Dwimas Sasongko and Tabula Rasa by Adriyanto Dewo are characterised by shades and characters that are not from the run-of-the-mill locations; Molucche in the former, Irian Jaya or Indonesian New Guinea in the latter. Stories focus on the idea of football as a sport that can pull people out of poverty or marginalisation (even if in the second film, it is rather a disenchanted premise), and are filled with edifying ideas.
Unfortunately, on the international scene, Indonesian features did not see overwhelming results either. Of course, Raid 2 can boast global distribution, but box-office takings did not meet expectations. In terms of participation in festivals, the distribution of titles like Selamat Pagi, Malam by Lucky Kuswandi, Siti by Eddie Cahyono and About a Woman by Teddy Soeriaatmadja was only marginal. Consolation was found in the unexpected triumph of the short film Maryam by Sidi Saleh (already a renowned director of photography) at the 71st Venice Film Festival. It was, in fact, the first time an Indonesian film had claimed the first prize at one of the three major European festivals. If we add the critical acclaim at the Rotterdam 2015 festival of A Trip to the Moon, Ismail Besbeth’s first feature film, there are some encouraging signs for the future generation of independent film-makers.
It is just a shame that from an institutional viewpoint, the up-and-coming talent cannot take advantage of the structures and projects aimed at supporting filmmaking. Demand continues to grow on all sides for the creation of an agency to support and promote local cinema. Despite there being a new government, concrete steps have yet to be taken. On the other hand, there were talks in 2014 of launching a major industry event the following year – Equator Film Xpo – which should have put Indonesia on the global film industry map. But when EFX took place at the end of March 2015, it was a modest conference with a focus on France.
In January 2015, it was a different Joko’s idea to instigate an important “reform” in the film industry. With a detailed declaration on Twitter, the director Joko Anwar publicly asked for clarification on the government policies regarding Indonesia’s participation in the European Film Market at the Berlin Film Festival. While the young film-makers invited to Berlinale Talent Campus were refused travel allowances, a delegation of self-styled industry experts, actors and critics were fully reimbursed for their travel expenses. It was a rather unusual attack on common practices for Indonesia. The denunciation made waves, and the Ministry had to cancel its participation in EFM 2015.
By sheer coincidence, further hope for a comeback for Indonesian cinema rests in Joko Anwar’s hands. His new film, A Copy of My Mind is on the selection list for Cannes. If it is accepted, it will be the first Indonesian feature film to go to Cannes for a decade. It could finally be the shot in the arm that the stagnant Indonesian film industry needs.
Paolo Bertolin