Theatrical Film 'Rahim' 

old language for new voice of Indonesian Cinema

Indonesia has an exceptionally rich and varied performing arts heritage going back thousands of years, drawing on innumerable customary ways of life, world views, and both maritime and agricultural practices. To this day each region of every island of the archipelago has its own unique storytelling tradition many of which continue to evolve with great dynamism.  Indonesian cinema however is still struggling to find its own unique voice. 

Whereas Indonesia's storytelling history is strongly rooted in open spaces, theatrical presentations involving song dance, and visual arts as well as varying degrees of audience participation, the medium of film requires a relatively closed space and a passive experience for the spectator. Film however also allows for a wider range of possibilities in terms of manipulating time, space, and other dimensions, including characters. Given the wealth that Indonesian artists have to draw on from their own artist heritages, there is certainly a lot of room for these two art forms to come together in unprecedented ways. 

In fact, it is this idea that has captured the imagination of renowned Balinese writer, activist, and performer Cok Sawitri and film director Adrian Tan who are presently collaborating on an experimental theatrical film project entitled 'Rahim', that explicitly seeks to explore how a film can be made using distinctly theatrical devices. Sawitri first approached Tan with the idea of creating a new type of movie that would draw strongly on the theatrical traditions of Indonesia but also unite the unique aspects of the film to present a new genre of cinema. 

Cok Sawitri 's script for 'Rahim' was originally written as a monologue, which made it all the more interesting to work with for this project, explained Tan. The monologist nature of film represented by this script would be transformed into more of a dialogue for the theatrical film. This dialogue, however, though spoken by different characters in fact suggests a kind of inner dialogue within the character of Nagari. The script for Rahim (Womb) tells the story of a woman's struggle to face her own externalized inner demons and invites the audience to look beyond judgments of differences, to feel their way towards generalized compassion for themselves and others. The womb after all represents the common source from which we all come. 

 

Although shot scene by scene as films are, Rahim is taking a unique approach to this process. On September 21,  Setia Darma House of Masks and Puppets hosted a theatrical presentation of the shooting of three scenes. "Having a live audience witness the filming is part of our attempt to maintain certain theatrical elements in the filming process", explained Sawitri. It soon became apparent to the audience, however, that this was no ordinary film shoot nor was it a theatrical performance as we know. 

The stage area was separated into two spaces The first space included the seated audience, two television screens, and images projected onto the roof of the wooden building. The second space was visible to the audience only through a doorway to where the acting took place. Seated at a table, a lone actress is interrogated by (same actress different character) an unidentified authority figure about why she had her womb removed. While the live actress was visible to the audience through the doorway she was also being captured by a camera seated across from her through which her image was then projected onto the screens in the first room. 

The non-present pre-recorded interrogator's image would appear on these same screens to ask a question and then the live capture of the actress seated before the audience would respond. This response was witnessed both live from the actress seen in profile and simultaneously on the screens in frontal view. Thus unfolded the interrogative dialogue in such a way that left the audience wondering if the woman was in fact being interrogated by another or if it was her own conscious that was persecuting her. 

The next scene involved another live actress appearing as what seemed to be yet another manifestation of her own consciousness. With hair down and dressed in loose house dresses, the two actresses break into song but soon the one stands on the table and dances a kind of relaxed Legong much to the dismay of the other who tries to stop the dancing that she clearly takes as a kind of assault. 

The scene brought to life a glimpse into the world of Balinese women beyond the pageantry and exotification that they are so often subject to, exposing the violent story that is seldom highlighted but is central to the Legong dance. The sub-text of this scene also spoke to the kind of subtle aggression that the exotification and commodification that the Legong Dance represents. The addition of song and dance into this scene added another dimension that severely blurred the lines between reality and fiction or experience and hallucination.  

Before the next scene, the actresses did their costume changes and makeup in front of the audience, breaking the suspension of disbelief that is so highly valued in both film and theatre. Although somewhat jarring, this awkward moment underlined the fact that both performers and audience were in fact sharing a common time and space as opposed to the illusion of separation that performance implies. It is this type of illusion of separation underlying all forms of conflict whether internal or external that this project speaks to both in terms of form and content. 

The third scene showed the interrogator chatting and laughing sardonically with her twin before they too break into song asking "and who are you?". The two continued singing as they approached the audience turning the question to the crowd. There was another uncomfortable moment as the members of the audience wondered if the separation between actor and spectator would not only be exposed for the fraud that it is but that the audience might also become subject to the interrogator's bitting question of the very nature of identity. 

The show then came to an end and Cok Sawitri stepped out of the doorway to address the audience. With characteristic charm and wit, she casually explained to the audience that what they had just witnessed was in fact the outcome of the latest in a series of eight workshops aimed at creating a new type of collaboration between film and theatre. Unlike film which allows for multiple takes and clever editing, theatre demands of the actors a sense of responsibility for their actions or acting. Similarly, the story of 'Rahim' exposes the need for us all to take responsibility for our own actions, how we position ourselves on the social stage of life and how we react to different pressures. 

Although the presentation on Thursday night only included a few scenes of the entire story of the film, the talented cast and crew managed to express something essentially human about our struggle as individuals. The myriad ways that we seek to reconcile ourselves with both inner and outer conditions were clearly expressed despite the lack of a distinct storyline in the presentation. 

Reaching beyond a sequential calculated and logical narrative the presentation nonetheless managed to invite the audience to appreciate our sameness as humans and in this appreciation of sameness to develop a greater capacity for compassion.

​

Written by Gabrielle Thibaudeau, Published September 2017 in International Bali Post