FILM: Eliana Eliana (Indonesia)
Directed by Riri Raza Screening Courtesy: Miles Films & NETPAC
Supported by the Embassy of Indonesia, which will serve Indonesian food

 

 

8pm Thurs, August 05, 2010

Members: Free Non-members: 150 baht Food: 100 baht

 

The film won the NETPAC Award at the Singapore International Film Festival, 2002 "for its intimate and restrained exploration of mother-daughter relations that uses the digital cinema medium to reflect an authentic and ground-level experience of contemporary life".

Directed by one of Indonesia’s best known and most successful contemporary directors, Riri Raza, the film is a stark, simple, moving story of an estranged mother and daughter who slowly come to understand each other after one long night spent on the streets of Jakarta.

The director says he uses her name twice in the the film's title because he feels she develops a new personality by the end of the movie.

Eliana runs away from her home in small town Padang in West Sumatra, when her marriage is fixed without her knowledge, and moves to Jakarta.

When the film opens, she has been in Jakarta for five years, kicked a man in his groin for misbehaving, lost her job, and received an eviction notice from her landlord. In addition to all this, her room mate Heni is missing.

That's when Eliana's mother Bunda comes to the city, determined to take her daughter back to her home town. To show her independence, Eliana takes her mother around the city, and it is during this night that the two discover many murky truths about contemporary city life. It is an eye opener for both of them, and although they are of different generations and of diverse temperaments, the events bring them closer to each other than they had ever been before.

The director said: "The film is a story about ordinary people, told in an extraordinary way. I never intended the film to be a statement on women's issues, or generation gap issues. It is more of a statement about the vulnerability of human beings".

The movie is part of a series of films made by I Sinema, a group of 13 new-wave Indonesian directors. It was shot in 14 days on a minuscule budget using a single digital camera.

The movie won plaudits at various festivals around the world - Rotterdam, London, Pusan, Gotenburg, Singapore, Hong Kong, Manila, Rome and San Francisco.

It won the Best Actress Award at the Deauville festival in France, and a Special Mention, at the Vancouver film festival.

What the critics said-

Film Comment: "A gritty slice of emotionally-fraught life set in grimy, chaotic Jakarta, this is the film that should put new Indonesian cinema squarely on the map. It is like nothing you’ve ever seen. And see it you must!"

Kompas Daily: "The dense and dynamic camerawork is effective in bringing to life the space and time, representing the chaotic situation of Jakarta, and conflicts within and among the characters."

To celebrate the film by one of their most acclaimed contemporary directors, the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia will serve local snacks, including "nasi usuk".

Don’t miss yet another acclaimed film, in the NETPAC Asian film festival, which is part of the FCCT Contemporary World Film Series.

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