Nawi’s Comedy: Revealing Social Criticism (2)

Writing this curatorial—without trying not to fall into redefining national film or drawing aside from “1st world cinema” definition in the post-colonial spirit, as if trying to imagine that the films I chose are independent, but in fact the medium and the language are universal—and presenting Nawi Ismail, a comedy filmmaker in Indonesian cinema, are not my intention to make fixed definition. It is not merely trying to match the theme of this festival, but in fact, point of view of Indonesian cinema needs to be intruded. If ‘deconstruction’ does not sound very trite, let’s use it in this curatorial.

Most of us who were born during 60’s to 90’s certainly had memories on Benyamin[1]  and on Benyamin’s boots in the film Benyamin Tukang Ngibul (1975). Four generations are having these memories. They remember the opening scene when a man in the quiet village near Jakarta (played by Benyamin Sueb) is plowing up the rice field while cursing. We remember when the man is looking up to the sun, he said, “My God! Our  civilization is going backward! Why we should take a look to the sun to know what hour it is?”. The next one is when Benyamin is going to Jakarta. For millions of people, since 50’s Jakarta became a city of dream –including  for Benyamin.

The premise is simple: Benyamin comes to Jakarta with his friend, Eddie Gombloh; they live in their friend’s house. As if being lied by their own dream, in the first day someone was lying to them. They decided to be a windbag, a promising profession that make a lot of money and they just provide lick and promise.  Their false-drug business ruined; they separated. Finally, Benyamin found military boots while fishing, and the story goes to Benyamin and his boots. Having these boots, Benyamin having many of unfortunate events. Tired of this condition, Benyamin decided to go back to his village.

At a glace, this comedy film seems like a comedy that relied on the dialogue and main character gimmick, yet the technical achievement is not too preeminent. It can be seen through its raw shots with many swaying and inconsistent movements, and the rashness of zoom-in and zoom-out technique. However, we should take a note on how Nawi bravely using symbolism such as boots that related to military in our daily life. That symbol became important signifier in Benyamin Tukang Ngibul, the unfortunate one which expelled Benyamin from Jakarta. Through the illusion from editing process – we can see from image arrangements when Benyamin threw his shoes, and the next image is when the shoes befall on others. Boots became a ghost that haunting Benyamin. He was repressed by its presence because when he refused it he would be unlucky. Just like one of his cursing, “this fortune gave me bad luck!”. Instead of seeing it as a tragedy, we simply accept it as comedy.

For Nawi, the important elements to builtf his film universe are the strength of character – especially Benyamin as prominent comedian – the strength of the script, editing, and its symbolism. Regarding symbolism, Nawi particularly framed the boots as an independent frame. This framing showed us that the boots became ‘the character’ in the narrative central position: not as part of the story, but as the reason of it narrative climax. Through those intertwined elements, Nawi brought two significant issues regarding the first decade of New Order government in his film. The first one is urbanization as part of developmental ideology: big city as the central. Nawi drew Jakarta as the unfriendly city full of trickery like a bad boyfriend, which broke a myth that Jakarta was a city of dreams. The second one is military symbol: on how he used the boots effectively not only the narrative, but also visually. Repetition on the boots scenes, in which it brings bad luck and terror, made the visual of boots embodied in our memories.  This criticism is very obvious visually, but somehow it lies behind the narrative and its characterization. Indeed, this ia an achievement among other films that have similar intention: giving specific discourse and social criticism.

Social criticism can be found also in other film, Ratu Amplop (1974). Played by Benyamin Sueb and Ratmi B29, Ratu Amplop is a universe, having beauty contest run by corrupt practice as its background. Like in a fairy tale, each contestants appeared full make-up and dressed-up like an angel using costumes and attributes from different countries. They gave envelop contains amount of money for several elderly people as the jury. When the jury announced that Ratmi B29, who dressed-up like a herbal seller and did not meet the standard of beauty: “We, the jury … after receiving, examining the figures, and divide those numbers, then the numbers … The following is the number? Chairman of the jury, please be recalculated … number? … (Thirteen) … Oh, thirteen … “, look on how the ambiguity of this dialogue points an issue on the modes and assessment from the jury. There was no debate about the standard of beauty and why they chose Ratmi, that dialogue only call numbers, sentence that fits and does not create redundant scene on the hush money, a dialogue that visually perfect. We can take a look also on the ridiculous thing when Nawi used several elderly people as the jury. It can be seen as a sharp criticism from Nawi toward older generation, the revolutionaries  became the main perpetrators  who shaped New Order regime (Nawi Ismail itself was born in 1918).

The way Nawi responds realities within social context through his film should be noted as well. We did not imagine Ratu Amplop as film with investigation storyline and full of moral message which tries to reveal corrupt act in the bureaucrat. Instead of remember as that kind of film,  we did remember Ratmi B29 who make us believe with her comical act: Ratmi B29 is the Queen of Envelop. Nawi seems to construct his film as a tale of fiction just like audiences receive and accept it. Narration in the film is not only becomes a tale, but also records the history of the nation.

If we reexamine Indonesian cinema discourse, Nawi and his films are rarely discussed. He was mentioned as the ‘film genre’ maker by critic and reviewer in his era, based on Jurnal Footage ongoing research that examine publication written by Salim Said (Yumni, 2016). Term ‘genre’ at that time refers to films made for commercially purpose (Heider, 1991: 5 06). These ‘genre’ films were considered as films that lacked seriousness on the filmmaking process, did not reflect the tradition, copied previous storyline, and offered no social discourse and criticism. Due to these characteristics, critics at that time did not consider ‘genre film’ as important.

Such framing apparently cannot be separated from issue on questioning national identity in the post-colonial context. The practice of film criticism always starts with questioning national identity in the national film, leads to dualism on ‘genre vs auteur’ framing that became a benchmark. As the result, Nawi criticism in his films became an exception, eliminated from national film discourse. Take a note also from Thomas Barker overview on the term ‘national film’ (“Questioning Film Nasional”, originally published in 2012). Barker revealed that the formulations under dualism of national film identity fixing the definition of ‘national film’ and it was done by elitist group, the one who shaped our history until nowadays.

Never be mentioned that sharp criticism for New Order regime could be revealed through comedy films, a genre that considered having no ideology, created carelessly, seeking for commercial purpose only, and did not represent national agendas. Through comedy and sharp images, Nawi shows his hidden criticism. It is undeniable that Nawi successfully shaping our mind and perception toward symbolism such as the boots. We the generation who grown up during New Order regime, have two perceptions about the boots itself. The first one is our visual memory in Benyamin’s films and the second one is our memory related to the military power. However we do remember, that both of them brings ‘bad luck’.

Bibliography
Barker, Thomas (2015). “Questioning Film Nasional”. Cinema Poetica. Retrieved July 2016 from Cinema Poetica http://cinemapoetica.com/questioning-film-nasional/

Heider, K. G. (1991). Indonesian Cinema: National Culture on Screen. Honolulu: University of Hawai Press.

Yumni, A. (7 Mei, 2016). Menolak ‘Universalisme’ dalam Filem-filem Nawi Ismail. Retrieved July 2016 from Jurnal Footage: http://jurnalfootage.net/v4/artikel/menolak-universalisme-dalam-filem-filem-nawi-ismail

[1] Benyamin Sueb (born in March 5, 1939, Jakarta; died in September 5, 1995, Jakarta) is Indonesian actor, comedian, film-maker, and singer.