Si Hantu yang Merindukan Rumahnya
The Ghost Who Longs for His Home

Host: Alifah Melisa

Tuesday, August 27, 2024 | 16:00 | Bioskopforlen

Ada sebuah kisah tentang hantu yang dipaksa berperang membela penjajahnya. Si hantu harus meninggalkan kampung halamannya untuk menjadi tentara, melawan musuh dari negara yang menjajah tanah airnya. Ia dikenal sebagai tentara Gurkha. Si hantu sangat merindukan rumahnya. Ia ingin kembali ke rumah. Sebagai hantu, seharusnya ia bebas kapan saja kembali ke tempat asalnya, tetapi karena identitasnya, ia tidak bisa kembali. Si hantu hanya bisa merindukan rumahnya, membayangkan makanan dan minuman di kampung halamannya. Si hantu menulis surat untuk menumpahkan rindunya. Tidak mudah baginya untuk menulis surat, karena tintanya membeku, ia harus menghangatkannya terlebih dahulu untuk bisa menulis. Semua perasaan dan rekaman ingatan si hantu yang masih tertinggal di tempat asing itu dituangkannya ke sebuah surat. Surat ini kemudian dibaca oleh manusia. Di dalamnya, terdapat potongan-potongan gambar, yang ketika disusun membentuk sebuah cerita. Sebuah cerita tentang ketercerabutan akar dan kehilangan identitas. Si manusia mencoba merasakan apa yang dialami si hantu melalui potongan-potongan gambar yang ada. Si hantu merasa keberadaannya bukan miliknya, ia menjadi objek yang dikuasai oleh orang lain. Semuanya itu hasil dari perasaan dan rekaman ingatan si hantu yang masih tertinggal di tempat asing itu.

Rasa ingin tahunya yang tak terpuaskan mendorong si manusia untuk mencari potongan-potongan gambar lain. Pencariannya membawanya ke Museum Sejarah Kroasia, di mana ia menemukan potongan-potongan gambar tentang pengungsi perang. Para pengungsi yang terpaksa meninggalkan negaranya akibat pendudukan tentara Jerman. Mereka mengarungi laut Mediterania hingga sampai di Mesir. Di tanah asing itu, mereka harus beradaptasi dengan lingkungan yang keras, menghadapi terpaan badai gurun, dan belajar bercocok tanam di lahan yang berbeda. Pada dasarnya, manusia dapat menyesuaikan dirinya di tempat ia berada, dan itulah yang dilakukan para pengungsi ini. Mereka melakukan segala bentuk kehidupan di tempat asal mereka sebagai usaha mempertahankan akar mereka, seperti menyulam dengan sisa kain tenda, memproduksi sendiri pertunjukkan teater dan menyanyi selayaknya yang mereka lakukan di rumahnya.

Dua cerita di atas sama-sama menyajikan gambaran masa lalu, melalui potongan arsip dan gambar masa kini, dalam lanskap tempat mereka berada. Kedua cerita tersebut berasal dari filem In Flanders Field (2023) karya Sachin dan Chasing the Sun: El Shatt (2023) karya Ana Bilankov. Dalam In Flanders Field, si hantu yang merindukan rumahnya, berusaha mempertahankan identitasnya melalui ingatan tentang rumah. Filem ini menarasikan perjalanan tentara Gurkha yang tercerabut dari akarnya melalui potongan-potongan gambar yang disandingkan dengan lanskap Eropa sekarang. Dalam Chasing the Sun: El Shatt, para pengungsi masih mempertahankan identitasnya dengan kegiatan harian mereka yang masih sama seperti saat sebelum mereka mengungsi. Di sini, gambar bolak-balik antara lanskap terkini Mesir dengan arsip foto pengungsi, yang diperoleh dari Museum Sejarah Kroasia, Museum Maritim Kroasia, Library of Congress, dan United Nations Archives, menunjukkan cara bertahan hidup mereka di tempat baru.

There is a story about a ghost forced to fight to defend his colonizers. The ghost had to leave his hometown to become a soldier, fighting enemies of the country that colonized his homeland. He was known as a Gurkha soldier. The ghost then yearned to be home. He wished to return. Being a ghost should mean that he is free to go back to his hometown at any time, but his identity restricts him from going back. The ghost could only long for his home, imagining the food and drink of his hometown. The ghost wrote a letter to express his longing. It was not easy for him to write a letter, as the ink was frozen, and he needed to warm it up first to be able to write. All the feelings and recorded memories of the ghost that remained in the foreign place were poured into a letter. Humans then read this letter. Inside, there are fragments of images, which form a story when arranged—a story of rootlessness and loss of identity. The human tries to feel what the ghost is experiencing through the pieces of the picture. The ghost feels that his existence does not belong to him, he becomes an object controlled by others. Everything is the result of the emotions and recorded memories of the ghost that are still left in that foreign place.

An insatiable curiosity drove the human to search for other fragments of the image. The search led to the Croatian Historical Museum, where fragments of images of war refugees were found. Refugees, who were forced to flee their country due to the German occupation, sailed through the Mediterranean Sea until they reached their destination. In that foreign land, they had to adapt to its harsh environment, facing desert storms as well as learning to grow crops on a different land. In essence, humans can adapt themselves to where they live, and that exactly is what these refugees did. They do all the things they usually did before in their homeland to maintain their roots, such as embroidering with leftover tent fabric, producing their very own theatrical performances, and singing just as they would at home.

The two stories above both paint a picture of the past, through archival footage and images of the present, in the landscapes they inhabit. Both stories are from the films In Flanders Field (2023) by Sachin and Chasing the Sun: El Shatt (2023) by Ana Bilankov. In In Flanders Field, a ghost who misses his home tries to hold on to his identity through memories of his home. The film narrates the journey of a Gurkha soldier pulled from his roots through fragments of images juxtaposed with the current European landscape. In Chasing the Sun: El Shatt, refugees still retain their identity by doing their daily activities the same way they did before they fled. Here, the back-and-forth images of the current landscape in Egypt with the archives of refugee photos from the Croatian Historical Museum, the Croatian Maritime Museum, the Library of Congress, and the United Nations Archives, show how they survive in a new place.