From a colonial cinema to a national cinema
In the first part of the 20th century, it was mainly foreign productions, mostly American, that were broadcast in Indonesia. Although a few local documentary films were made, they remained in the minority, and it was not until 1926 that the first film produced in Indonesia was shown: Loetoeng Kasaroeng by the Dutchmen G. Kruger and L. Heuveldorp, which has unfortunately disappeared today. During the 1930s, like the Wong brothers, many Chinese directors and producers became interested in the Indonesian scene, and the majority of the film industry was owned by Chinese families. With the Great Depression, local production slowed down considerably, and only Hollywood productions remained on the screens. While the films were primarily aimed at a Chinese audience, they nevertheless began to open up to a native audience and gradually turned away from mythological themes to be inspired by local reality. Representative of this trend, the love drama Terang Boelan (Full Moon) by Albert Balink was a great success in 1937. This marked a turning point in local production, which developed significantly during the 1940s, both in the romantic line of Terang Boelan, and in a more intellectual and committed vein, in the context of a nationalist movement that was then in full swing.
After difficult decades, the revival of the 1970s and 1980s
But the Japanese occupation put an abrupt end to this prosperous period, monopolizing the means of production for propaganda cinema. With the Soekarno government, local production resumed but cinema was used exclusively for nationalist and anti-imperialist purposes while foreign imports were banned. With Soeharto's New Order regime, censorship was uncompromising, but a few pioneering figures nevertheless emerged, such as Usmar Ismail, the first major Indonesian director. His best-known film abroad is Fighters for Freedom (1961), which tells the story of the Indonesian independence struggle against the Dutch and French occupiers. A must-see for understanding the political history of the country!
It was not until the 1970s and 1980s that the national industry really blossomed, with a popular cinema that met with great success. This local cinema includes many comedies such as those featuring the famous "Warkop" troupe or the epic Naga Bonar (1987, with a sequel in 2007), as well as action films like Catatan si Boy (1989). The local industry is very dynamic, for better or for worse, with a good number of melodramas and martial arts films being shown. But a more political cinema is also developing, with notably the film Tjoet Nja 'Dhien (1988) by Eros Jarot, selected at the Cannes Film Festival in 1989. However, this prosperity slowed down in the 1990s, as American and Hong Kong cinema took over, and local production was often limited to B movies.An independent cinema in full development
Since the 2000s, however, Indonesian cinema has experienced a growing boom. With the end of the Soeharto regime, an independent cinema has been able to develop, with films dealing with more political subjects such as religion, gender discrimination or the condition of ethnic minorities. One example is Lovely Man by Teddy Soeriaatmadja, which tells the story of the encounter between a young, very religious Muslim woman and her father, a transgender prostitute. Screened at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea in 2011, the film was a big hit internationally but was heavily criticized in Indonesia by religious groups. Another key director in contemporary Indonesian auteur cinema is Garin Nugroho. With his 2018 film Memories of my body, highly acclaimed by local and international critics, he delivers contrasting representations of masculinity and femininity embodied within the same body, reviving Indonesian traditions where five different genders are recognized.
Discover Bali through contemporary cinema
To prepare yourself to discover Bali, there is nothing like watching a few key films that feature the island of the gods. The two documentaries of the Balinese director Putu Kusuma Widjaja The North Wind (2010) and On mother's Head (2013), allow us to discover the daily life of the Balinese and the difficulties they have to face, far from the tourist clichés. We don't discover white sandy beaches but rather, with simplicity and sincerity, how the population manages to provide for its daily needs. Two other documentaries to understand the island in all its complexity are Cowboys in Paradise by Amit Virmani (2011), which reveals the sex tourism that is rampant in Bali and The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer (2013), a violent film that deals with the massacre of Indonesian communists in 1965. Two French directors, Sandrine Chopin and Elsa Émilie Martin, also present with Mama Christine the meeting between a Balinese child and a French businesswoman, who decides to engage in the education of Balinese youth through humanitarian action. In a more romantic genre, there is the French film Toute la beauté du monde (All the beauty of the world ) by Marc Esposito (2006), in which we discover the rice fields of Jatiluwih, the Tanah Lot or Ubud. Not to mention the very popular Eat Pray Love by Ryan Murphy, which features Julia Roberts in search of her soul mate in the midst of superbly filmed Balinese landscapes.
For an on-site film experience, don't miss the Minikino Film Week / Bali International Short Film Festival, an annual event founded in 2015 that features short films from here and abroad, with a desire to make viewing a true collective experience, with screenings followed by discussions, debates, etc. The festival is held in a dozen different spaces on the island, "pop-up cinemas" that allow you to discover it off the tourist trail.
