SANG PENARI (THE DANCER)

Directed by: Ifa Isfansyah
Run Time: 111 Min

As a film trying to portray one of Indonesia's turmoil years, where the Indonesian Communist Party is having it's peak in the 60s and the subsequent event that everybody (unless some people who have no interest in history) in Indonesia knows what it is, it is a very good one. Not trying to be pretentious or even preachy, it even had a good production value.

Sadly, for foreign viewers they will be left confused to the what and why in this film since even the name of the Indonesian Communist Party didn't even mentioned at all and there is no title card that explain the socio political background of the historical events that become the background of this film.

Not even any visual symbol depicts the peak of communist influence in Indonesia at that time, not even the logo of hammer and sickle appeared at all. As for me this is important since this film has big potential to be sent into foreign film festivals.

But for Indonesians, we already know what and why without us needed to be invaded by the extreme visual of communist logos.

However instead of trying to portray the historical event in a generic way, this one explore the how and why this situation could flourish in Indonesia by stating that poverty, prejudice and people's innocence come at play.

Inspired from the novel Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk by Ahmad Tohari (which I haven't read), it tells the story of  Srintil (Prisia Nasution) a young woman who lived in the village of Dukuh Paruk in Central Java. She wanted to be a ronggeng dancer, a profession regarded as prestigious in the village. Not only that it could elevate  the village's prestige but it could bring a lot of money too.

The thing is, as a traditional ronggeng dancer, it is obliged for her to have sex with the highest bidder and that hurts Rasus (Oka Antara) deeply since he had a soft spot for Srintil. But who is he anyway to take  Srintil into his arms? He is just a poor guy happens to be in love with a woman impossible to reach.

As time goes by Rasus enter the Army from the bottom and become a soldier. Meanwhile the ronggeng dance troupe were infiltrated by the Communist Party cadre, capitalizing on high illiteracy level and low education among the villagers. 

In the end everybody knows, communist purge take it's toll to the common people and Rasus and Srintil are at different ends of the relation between power and the powerless. Like it or not, Rasus and Srintil cannot escape history's mighty force in determining people's fate.

The ronggeng procession were depicted very nicely and Prisia can act as a dancer convincingly. Oka himself is a good choice, his voice and mannerism is a perfect choice to act as Rasus a naive villager transformed into a soldier. The pacing is tight and even for those who haven't read the book, the whole story is understandable.

Some people complained about Pia's use of Javanese language and accent but me being a Sundanese who cannot speak any Javanese language at all cannot tell if there is a problem at all. Overall, this one is an important film not to be missed.