Abstract
Abstract Short films have proven an important medium for social commentary in contemporary Indonesia. As an example of the genre, this special issue of BKI presents Candra Aditya’s (2016) short film, Dewi pulang (Dewi goes home), which follows a young Javanese woman as she travels from Jakarta to her natal home in Central Java to attend her father’s funeral. A critically annotated transcript and translation of the film’s dialogue is followed by four essays on various aspects of the film and a conversation with the filmmaker. Issues addressed include the changing nature of short films and ‘indie’ cinema in post-authoritarian Indonesia; the filmmaking practices specific to Dewi pulang; the interplay of absence and presence in Dewi’s movement between Jakarta and her natal home in Central Java; and the juxtaposition of Indonesian-, English- and Javanese-language dialogue, and the forms of sociality they respectively embody. Taken as a whole, the special issue offers at once a window onto short filmmaking in Indonesia and new primary materials for further analysis.
Highlights
Candra Aditya’s short film Dewi pulang (Dewi goes home) follows a young woman as she travels from Jakarta to her natal home in Central Java to help prepare funerary rites for her father
As a meditation on conflicting responsibilities, desires, and aversions, Dewi pulang offers a filmic examination of the challenges that confront a growing number of young Indonesians who find themselves caught between differing ways of life—commonly, if perhaps oversimply, described as traditional and modern, rural and urban
The film was subsequently shown at the 2017 Singapore International Film Festival, and was one of two entries Candra submitted for the 2018 Viddsee Jury Awards, where it has since been freely available for streaming online
Summary
Candra Aditya’s short film Dewi pulang (Dewi goes home) follows a young woman as she travels from Jakarta to her natal home in Central Java to help prepare funerary rites for her father. Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkDuownnldoaede1d7fr7om(2Br0ill2.c1o)m0138/032–/220202701:31:09PM via free access candra aditya’s dewi pulang short filmmaking in Indonesia, and as a commentary on the social and cultural circumstances the film depicts. Context for the essays is provided by a critically annotated transcript and translation of the film’s dialogue, and a conversation with the filmmaker, Candra Aditya. The annotated transcript and translation are an important point of reference for the essays that follow They are neither intended to replace a careful viewing of Dewi pulang, nor do they presume to represent the film exhaustively. Several sections were revised more extensively based on a close review of the film and discussion with Javanese consultants Stepping back from these more technical aspects of the process, it must be borne in mind that the ‘object’ of transcription is itself theoretically fraught. Sampé akhirnya gué ngobrol soal film lah nih ... Indonesian appropriation of (English use of?) the French à la, as in ‘he’s doing such-and-such à la Fachri’
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