Conclusion: 'Placing Culture'

CONcLUSION: ‘PLAcING CULTURE’ This book has explored the way Indonesian films have engaged with issues of traditional cultures in diverse regions, the forms these regional societies take, and particularly the cultural phenomena to which they give rise. It has also explored the issue of broad cultural dominants in Indonesian society, in particular group orientation and group body language, which are also addressed by Heider in his book Indonesian Cinema: National Culture on Screen, though in quite different ways. At the same time, this study has eschewed attempting to define a national culture or a national identity, on the ground that most of the cultural dominants with which it has engaged, and especially body language, are pre-national in origin, and not only pertain to local communities in which the individual is raised, but are part of the habitus of an individual. Nevertheless, the arguments and analyses presented in this book are grounds for thinking further about the differences between individualistic Western societies and group-oriented societies, certainly beyond bland and non-specific generalizations, because the phenomena explored are fundamental to the constitution and forms of interaction of an individual, ultimately producing a quite different kind of human experience. This is something demonstrated by the films them- selves. At the same time, in Chap. 7 I have provocatively raised questions about alternative positioning(s) of women in some Indonesian films. One of the examples investigated—the West Javanese legend of ‘incest avoided’ with the help of the mother, a story found also in various forms elsewhere in Indonesia, and retold in the popular filmSangkuriang —provides an alternative myth to the Oedipus story, used widely in the West as a singular © The Author(s) 2017 297 D. Hanan, Cultural Specificity in Indonesian Film, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40874-3 298 ConcLUSion: ‘PlacinG CULture’ theoretical model for the development of the superego and the founda- tions of culture. Of course ‘culture’, or ‘cultures’, are not the only phenomena addressed by Indonesian films, even by the best films. For example, take the films made early in the independence period—by Usmar Ismail and the group around him—about the period of struggle for independence, films which were influenced by neo-realism as a mode of production, but do quite different things from the Italian neo-realist films. For one thing, they engage with issues of war crimes perpetrated against the local population even by Indonesian freedom fighters opposing the Dutch. So these films are not primarily concerned with issues of culture. Rather they are concerned with moral issues, though, like the Italian neo-realist films they do encap- sulate a sense of the ethos of a particular period, an ethos both grim and hopeful, imbued with human courage, but also with austerity, bleakness and, at times, betrayal. Nevertheless, these films do not pose objections to the main arguments of this book; it is simply that cultural issues are not foregrounded. Similarly, there are a number of fine Indonesian films that engage with inescapable Third World dimensions of Indonesian society, an issue pointed to in my second chapter, when I cited statistics of 10 % literacy at the time of the ending of colonialism, and the fact that even today 11 % of the population are under the poverty line of $1.25 dollars a day, but that if one raises the poverty line to $2 per day, up to 40 % of the population are below the poverty line. The Indonesian films that engage with the Third World aspects of Indonesian society—the most challenging of them addressing the fates of ‘internal migrants’, those travelling from their villages to the national capital seeking a better life—are often about the loss of community, the absence of support from the urban culture, with marginalized, dislocated and only partially employed people cling- ing to one another in desperation, or existing in relative isolation, or with disturbed senses of space and of time. Finally, there is the issue of politics and the nation. Despite the presence of censorship, including censorship at the script stage, as occurred for much of the Suharto New Order period, and despite the demand for ideological conformity, occurring even today to an extent, filmmakers have engaged with political issues, commonly using allegory—though at times barely disguised allegory—to challenge, satirize and excoriate particular leaders and their policies. These are also issues within Indonesian cinema that deserve attention. GLOSSARY AND ABBREVIATIONS abangan See santri-abangan adat traditional customs, customary law AMPAI American Motion Picture Association in Indonesia babad Javanese or Balinese chronicle of past events Badan Sensor Film Badan Sensor Film (Film Censorship Board). During the New Order the film censorship board was under the administration of the Ministry of Information (Deppen) but currently, as the Lembaga Sensor Film, it is administered from within the Ministry of Education and Culture. bahasa Betawi also known as Jakarta dialect, originally based on port Malay, bahasa Betawi evolved over centuries to become the lingua franca of the original Betawi, with their numerous different countries (or regions) of origin bahasa gaul Jakarta teen language that developed from the 1980s on; the term literally means the language of socializing (gaul) Bakin Badan Koordinasi Intelijen Negara (State Body for the Coordination of Intelligence) banjar local community sub-division in Bali, governed by local adat but also regulated by the nation-state Batavia Dutch name for the city that is now called Jakarta bedhaya Javanese court dance © The Author(s) 2017 299 D. Hanan, Cultural Specificity in Indonesian Film, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40874-3 300 GLoSSaRY and AbbREViationS Betawi ethnic group regarded as the original working class of Jakarta, the descendants of newcomers (including slaves) brought by the Dutch from the 1620s onwards to populate the newly created centre of trade, and subsequent colonial capital, Batavia Bhinneka Tunggal Ika ‘Unity in Diversity’, the national motto of the Republic of Indonesia Bodhisattva Sanskrit term for one who has sought to achieve enlighten- ment akin to that of the Buddha Borobudur massive central Javanese Buddhist monument in the form of a stupa. Completed early in the ninth century, its terraced galleries are adorned with bas-relief sculptures illustrating Mahayana Buddhist texts. It stands some 40 km to the north-west of present-day Jogjakarta, while the Hindu temple complex, Prambanan, built half a century or more later, stands some 17 km to the east of the central Jogjakarta area. candi ancient Hindu or Buddhist temple Candi Sukuh fifteenth-century late Hindu-Buddhist temple, on Mount Lawu, on the border of Central and East Java, noted for its unusual design and layout, and striking imagery of both sexual and spiritual dimensions. Some of this imagery has similarities with imagery of tant- ric rituals found in Tibetan Buddhism. Citra Award the award given in many sectors of achievement at the annual Indonesian Film Festival Deppen Departemen Penerangan (Ministry of Information); body responsible for regulating the film industry, including censorship, from 1964 until 1999, when it was abolished by President Wahid didong a participatory performance form found in the Gayo Highlands of Aceh. In the course of the twentieth century it has taken various forms. In recent times it has commonly comprised dance, singing and poetic chanting, performed by teams of men, usually in a circle, and between competing groups. duduk bersila form of sitting cross-legged on the floor, a posture often used by Indonesian Muslims, but reminiscent of the half lotus position used in yoga and in Buddhist meditation dwifungsi dual function, the doctrine of the Suharto New Order which gave the Indonesian National Army two functions: to protect the nation but also to govern the country via having representatives in the national parliament, and army personnel working alongside civil ser- vants in key areas GLoSSaRY and AbbREViationS 301 FFI Festival Film Indonesia. Apart from a period of dormancy from 1993 to 2003, due to a decline in the industry in the 1990s, the Indonesian Film Festival, which awards prizes for the best achievements in (primarily) commercial filmmaking under a number of categories, has been conducted under this name since 1973. It was preceded by occasional ‘national film appreciation’ weeks in the 1950s and 1960s. G30S Gerakan 30 September (30th September Movement), term refer- ring to the momentous but abortive army purge of the night of 30 September 1965, in which six army generals were murdered. Although estimates have not been confirmed, it is believed that more than 500,000 alleged communists were slaughtered in the army-led response to this event, and many more imprisoned for lengthy gaol terms. gambang kromong Jakarta-based music using a mixture of Malay and Chinese instruments, including a gambang (wooden xylophone-like instrument) and a kromong (set of tuned gongs). The music is seen as arising from the acculturation between the Betawi and the local Chinese in earlier centuries. gamelan ensemble of musical instruments, of indigenous pre-Hindu- Buddhist origin, consisting of metallophones, gongs and drums, played as an orchestra and taking various forms and producing different kinds of music in Java, West Java and Bali gotong royong mutual cooperation, mutual assistance; cooperation among members of a village or district Guided Democracy the political order (1959–65) that replaced the parliamentary democracy of the early years of independence, after the parliamentary parties could not agree. Guided Democracy was politi- cally dominated by President Sukarno, who governed via an appointed ‘gotong royong’ cabinet. Hadith a traditional collection of writings conveying the words and actions of the prophet Muhammad Haji a Muslim who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca IKJ Institut Kesenian Jakarta (Jakarta Institute of the Arts).

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