The language of violence in Indonesian cinema

Abstract

In thinking of the relationship between political and cinematic violence in Indonesia, this article ponders the relatively infrequent violence in the cinema that emerged in the shadows of the mass killings of 196566. How should one think about the new fascination with violence in recent Indonesian cinema? The answer may lie in a comparison of Indonesian film form with the unique nature of the Indonesian language and its prevalence of the passive voice or object-focused syntax. In Indonesian films the agent of the act of violence is not articulated, and instead violence becomes victim-focused. This article pays close attention to a post-New Order film, Novel Tanpa Huruf R/A Novel without R, which marks a departure in moments of graphic violence while also maintaining some consistencies with the language of New Order cinema.