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24August2010

Opera Jawa in Tropen Museum Amsterdam

Posted by admin under: Art Performance.

Opera Jawa is the theatrical production of the film Opera Jawa by Indonesian film director Garin Nugroho.

Garin Nugroho, who is Indonesia’s leading independent filmmaker has made a radical new musical and dance version of the central story in the Ramayana: The Abduction of Sita. Sita, the wife of Rama, is abducted by Ravana.

The Ramayana is one of the world’s great epic narratives and has spread throughout South East Asia. Its stories have been re-told as a Muslim tale, too, and in such different forms as painting, dance and puppetry.

Garin sets his Opera Java firmly in contemporary Indonesia and takes this version from the wayang or puppet theatre. Its transformations and re-interpretations are a reflection of different cultures and different times.

The film and the theatre production tells of a passionate love triangle between three former dancers who had once performed that same Ramayana story in its traditional Javanese wayang orang version. It is a love triangle that leads to conflict and violence. Rama, his wife Siti and Ravana.

He has always been in love with this beautiful woman and now abducts and tries to seduce her. Inevitably the two men begin to fight over Siti. Caught between these two men, Siti struggles to find her own way.

Garin Nugroho’s artistic language is unmistakable:
The dialogues are sung and the actions danced. For Nugroho “This is a requiem presented through a combination of gamelan, Javanese song (tembang), dance, costume, acting, visual art and installations. It is inspired by a Javanese culture that develops and grows in the midst of multicultural expression.”
Nugroho thus creates a new kind of musical, an opera for the 21st century.

If Opera Jawa is a requiem, showing where violence might lead, it is also a celebration: a celebration of creativity and of the diversity of voices and cultures in Indonesia.

The performance can be understood by those knowledgeable of Indonesian society and culture; it boldly combines popular, classic and modern forms of dance and performance, variously drawn from communities in the mountains, beaches and palaces of central Java.

At the same time it can be enjoyed by others as would an opera with its classic format of two men fighting for the love and possession of a woman.

8January2010

Garin Nugroho: Kualitas Film Indonesia Membaik 2010

Posted by admin under: Uncategorized.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) – Sutradara film Garin Nugroho mengatakan bahwa kualitas film Indonesia akan lebih baik pada 2010, berbeda dengan 2009 yang jumlahnya banyak namun kualitasnya turun.

Garin di Jakarta Kamis menegaskan bahwa sepanjang pengamatannya di tahun 2009 perfilman Indonesia mengalami peningkatan dalam jumlah, namun kualitasnya menurun.

“Kalau dari segi jumlah meningkat namun dari segi kualitas film kita menurun sepanjang 2009,” katanya.

Ia mengakui, kualitas film Indonesia masih kalah dengan negara tetangga seperti Singapura, Thailand, atau Filipina.

Pada 2010, ia yakin bahwa peningkatan kualitas film Indonesia akan terjadi seiring lahirnya sineas generasi baru pasca-Riri Riza, Nia Dinata, dan lain sebagainya.

“Akan lahir generasi baru yang sehebat Riri Riza, Nia Dinata dan lain sebagainya,” katanya.

Meski demikian, ia memprediksi bahwa peningkatan kualitas film Indonesia di 2010 tidak terlalu signifikan.

Generasi baru yang akan muncul berasal dari wajah baru ataupun wajah lama yang selama ini belum diberi ruang.

“Saya optimis bahwa kualitas perfilman di Indonesia akan terus mengalami peningkatan di tangan sutradara handal yang sudah ada dan lahirnya para generasi baru mendatang,” katanya.