2 Films with Symbolism and Visual Collage

Solo - The short film titled Special Visit opens with the atmosphere of Pasar Gede Solo in 2015. Specifically, at the pedestrian bridge (JPO) where a red cloth was stretched along with a large photo of the President and Vice President, Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla.

A woman in a red dress walks across the JPO while carrying a food container in her left hand. She then passes through the hustle and bustle of Pasar Gede. She heads to a place and arrives at a pig pen. There, she begins to pet, bathe, and feed the pig. The woman even joins in eating together.

After playing with the male pig, she performs a dance or short choreography titled I Love Pig and Pig Love Me created by Made Tantri Parwita. The film concludes with a scene of the woman in the red dress guarding a candle in the darkness to keep it from going out.

The film Special Visit is the work of filmmaker Zen Al Ansory from Solo, who is exploring narrative and film structure to produce unconventional works. This work participated in the Singapore International Film Festival 2015 and indeed does not follow the common structure used by most films. 

Zen intentionally responds to the socio-political phenomenon at that time, specifically when the film was produced in 2015. Although without dialogue, Zen communicates the message he wants to convey in the film through symbols such as the image of Jokowi-JK at Pasar Gede, the red dress, the pig, and the candle. 

Because it uses symbols, the message brought by Zen becomes indirect, making it difficult for the audience to grasp the filmmaker's intent. We need to delve deeper into the social, cultural, and political background when the film was made, as well as to know and understand the filmmaker.

Zen made the film based on his personal experience when in 2014, he rented a house in the Palur area, Mojolaban, Sukoharjo, Central Java. Coincidentally, his neighbor was a pig farmer.

“From there, the idea to make the film emerged. At that time, the 2014 presidential election was in full swing, and there was a lot of news about people being caught for corruption. There, wives and children were frequently visiting their husbands or fathers, which was widely reported,” he told Solopos.com recently.

Zen said that from the socio-political issues, he then responded in the form of an experimental film. He did not write a script but only wanted to tell the story of a woman in a red dress who brings food and visits a male pig.

“Actually, through that film, I wanted to talk about Indonesia, which at that time was very murky, with rampant corruption, and people who were not ashamed [of their fathers' corruption]. Then I linked it to political issues and even mythology about waiting for a candle [which is associated with the pig thief],” he said.

Zen can be said to have worked on the film using whatever equipment was available. However, he believes that this actually creates a more organic cinematic impression that feels unforced. “We intentionally deviated from the mainstream both in terms of technique and story,” he said.

What Zen worked on goes beyond the norms and is categorized as an experimental film. The man, who is also a Film & Animation Lecturer at the Faculty of Creative Industries, Telkom University Bandung, said that experimental films intentionally deviate. 

“The context of deviation here means that experimental films contradict dominant cinema or mainstream. This means that the making of experimental films breaks the formalities of filmmaking from concept to technical aspects,” he told Solopos.com recently. 

Basically, as done by Zen, experimental films provide ample space to present new things even if they are outside the norms. This exploration is also showcased in the short film titled Nine Pearls from Heaven (2021) directed by Fendi Siregar. The film aired on the channel Indonesiana.tv.

The film begins with a scene where a group of people walks to a place to perform some kind of "ritual." Then, seven women in white kebaya perform the Bedayan Dance surrounded by nine female character wayang golek.

The nine female wayang golek are referred to as the “Pearls from Heaven.” Because these nine wayang golek represent holy women across religions and beliefs in Indonesia. The holy women include Dewi Sri, Siti Asiyah, Kuan Im, Maryam, Siti Khadijah, Saraswati, Siti Fatimah, Siti Hajar, and Taahireh.

Zen states that experimental films may not tell any story, only creating poetic daydreams or abstract visual collages. However, he believes this challenges the audience to define, interpret, and find meaning in a work. 

“Although not entirely opposing narrative films like documentaries, experimental films have their own uniqueness in defining themselves,” Zen said in his writing titled Experimental Canon: Recontextualizing Film Reality, which he co-wrote with Dyah Ayu.

Quoting what Zen wrote, ultimately, experimental films have transformed into a medium of human expression, into a communication tool that has also preserved what humans have done for thousands of years, namely telling stories. 

“If previously stories were told orally, then in writing, but now it has become a medium, namely moving images. And how, in essence, film [experimental] is an effort to choose meaning. To interpret culture, and also to interpret change,” he said.

This article has been published on Solopos.com on Friday, May 3, 2024.