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Jakarta Election
Indonesia in old Russia nostalgia: Utuy, Semaun and Soekarno
Features - June 02, 2006
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The film begins with Ludmila Demidyuk, a lecturer in Indonesian literature at Moscow University. She knew writer Utuy Tatang Sontani, an exile who became a lecturer at the same department with Ludmila; she died and was buried in 1979 in Moscow.
Ludmila buys some flowers for Utuy's grave and tries to locate the grave at a Muslim comp
Russia is an old friend Indonesia has tended to forget amid political events and global changes.
The reverse is also true: Indonesia is an old friend that Russia has forgotten.
But there are some who remember Indonesia and they reminisce about the old friend with passion.
In the beginning of a cold spring this year in Moscow and St. Petersburg, journalists Seno Joko Suyono from Tempo magazine, Benny Benke from Semarang-based Suara Merdeka and culture observer Mudji Sutrisno flew to Russia to record the remaining nostalgia of the friendship, lest we forget.
Guided by an Indonesian student in Russia, Henny Saptatia Sujai, they met and talked with more than a dozen Russians who knew Indonesia. They all speak Indonesian -- many are fluent.
Bringing hours of audiovisual recordings from 28 days of preparation and shooting, they produced a 75-minute amateur documentary titled Sprinkle of nostalgia from a forgotten friend.
They also recorded a taxi driver and a souvenir shop attendant who could sing a national song, Ismail Marzuki's Rayuan Pulau Kelapa in Russian.
lex at a large cemetery in Moscow. Many graves have stones that have already faded and appear white, without visible inscription.
Ludmila could not find Utuy's grave. Consequently, she spreads the flowers onto the nameless and neglected graves.
The Russian friends are privileged people who had a chance to meet and become acquainted with a few prominent Indonesians like Utuy and Semaun, one of the founders of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
Former Pravda journalist Lev Dyomin and government official Yury Sholmov learned Indonesian from Semaun in Moscow.
In his house, Dyomin has several Indonesian cultural objects, even a drawing of TV personality Tino Sidin.
Professor Vilen Sikorsky is not just a fluent Indonesian speaker. He's also a keen historian of Indonesian literature.
"Balai Pustaka has indeed made a considerable contribution to Indonesian literature. But the literature did not grow from the Balai Pustaka era. It was founded on Melayu Rendah (low-level Melayu), from stories published in Melayu papers long before the Balai Pustaka period," he said, contending mainstream thoughts of literary figures A. Teeuw and HB Jassin.
Besides friends of prominent Indonesian figures, the documentary also recorded Russian Indonesianists.
"We know Indonesianists usually come from Monash University, Cornell or Leiden," Mudji Sutrisno said. "But in Russia there are Indonesianists, too. One has even dedicated her life to ancient Batak culture," he said.
Elena Revunenkova, the head of Kunst Kamera Museum in St. Petersburg, is one of the few people in the world who can read ancient Batak characters.
Vladimir Losyagin in Moscow is among the first who worked on a Russian-Indonesian dictionary. He has finished another, a dictionary of Russian-Indonesian idioms.
The movie was intended to contain more information. However, because the makers come from a writing background, not much visual information is included. Instead, the documentary is a wordy audiovisual work.
The director, Seno, writes a brief story for each interviewee. In the stories, audience could get more information than from the documentary. For example, Seno writes that a former Soekarno interpreter takes a lot of pride from a Rolex given by the former president. This interesting piece of information is only written but not shown in the documentary.
One of the producers, Taufik Rahzen from the Indonesian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), said that producing an audiovisual work made it easy to raise funds. For this documentary ICCR got money largely from individuals.
The film closes with the growth of capitalism in Russia and how these old friends face the difficulty to adapt.
"Before, we went to a store and couldn't find milk. We had to go early in the morning and line up to make sure we got supplies. But now we go to the store and everything is available.
"Only, we have no money in our pockets ... "
Ludmila buys some flowers for Utuy's grave and tries to locate the grave at a Muslim comp
Russia is an old friend Indonesia has tended to forget amid political events and global changes.
The reverse is also true: Indonesia is an old friend that Russia has forgotten.
But there are some who remember Indonesia and they reminisce about the old friend with passion.
In the beginning of a cold spring this year in Moscow and St. Petersburg, journalists Seno Joko Suyono from Tempo magazine, Benny Benke from Semarang-based Suara Merdeka and culture observer Mudji Sutrisno flew to Russia to record the remaining nostalgia of the friendship, lest we forget.
Guided by an Indonesian student in Russia, Henny Saptatia Sujai, they met and talked with more than a dozen Russians who knew Indonesia. They all speak Indonesian -- many are fluent.
Bringing hours of audiovisual recordings from 28 days of preparation and shooting, they produced a 75-minute amateur documentary titled Sprinkle of nostalgia from a forgotten friend.
They also recorded a taxi driver and a souvenir shop attendant who could sing a national song, Ismail Marzuki's Rayuan Pulau Kelapa in Russian.
lex at a large cemetery in Moscow. Many graves have stones that have already faded and appear white, without visible inscription.
Ludmila could not find Utuy's grave. Consequently, she spreads the flowers onto the nameless and neglected graves.
The Russian friends are privileged people who had a chance to meet and become acquainted with a few prominent Indonesians like Utuy and Semaun, one of the founders of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
Former Pravda journalist Lev Dyomin and government official Yury Sholmov learned Indonesian from Semaun in Moscow.
In his house, Dyomin has several Indonesian cultural objects, even a drawing of TV personality Tino Sidin.
Professor Vilen Sikorsky is not just a fluent Indonesian speaker. He's also a keen historian of Indonesian literature.
"Balai Pustaka has indeed made a considerable contribution to Indonesian literature. But the literature did not grow from the Balai Pustaka era. It was founded on Melayu Rendah (low-level Melayu), from stories published in Melayu papers long before the Balai Pustaka period," he said, contending mainstream thoughts of literary figures A. Teeuw and HB Jassin.
Besides friends of prominent Indonesian figures, the documentary also recorded Russian Indonesianists.
"We know Indonesianists usually come from Monash University, Cornell or Leiden," Mudji Sutrisno said. "But in Russia there are Indonesianists, too. One has even dedicated her life to ancient Batak culture," he said.
Elena Revunenkova, the head of Kunst Kamera Museum in St. Petersburg, is one of the few people in the world who can read ancient Batak characters.
Vladimir Losyagin in Moscow is among the first who worked on a Russian-Indonesian dictionary. He has finished another, a dictionary of Russian-Indonesian idioms.
The movie was intended to contain more information. However, because the makers come from a writing background, not much visual information is included. Instead, the documentary is a wordy audiovisual work.
The director, Seno, writes a brief story for each interviewee. In the stories, audience could get more information than from the documentary. For example, Seno writes that a former Soekarno interpreter takes a lot of pride from a Rolex given by the former president. This interesting piece of information is only written but not shown in the documentary.
One of the producers, Taufik Rahzen from the Indonesian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), said that producing an audiovisual work made it easy to raise funds. For this documentary ICCR got money largely from individuals.
The film closes with the growth of capitalism in Russia and how these old friends face the difficulty to adapt.
"Before, we went to a store and couldn't find milk. We had to go early in the morning and line up to make sure we got supplies. But now we go to the store and everything is available.
"Only, we have no money in our pockets ... "
For further information: Indonesian Council for Cultural Relations Jl. Veteran I No. 26 Central Jakarta tel. 3814107
(The film is only available in Bahasa Indonesia at present)
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