Kantata Takwa

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the talk by Gotot Prakosa, and so will just be looking at the short text we read and the film. Reading the other posts though, it seems that the talk would have helped clear up more questions that were not quite answered in the film or the reading.

Originally, one of the first things that really stuck out to me, as it did apparently with some other people, was the female figure. Her silent gaze and lack of action contrasted with the other bombastic movement occurring in the film, from the energy of the concert scenes to the violence inflicted by the masked figures. I read her white hijab as a sign of the so-called feminized purity, and her passiveness as a lack of agency, as Nola did. However, Nola's following points about the different manifestations of power and resistance reminded me about the necessity of not passing judgments without completely understanding the whole picture. Also, the text's description of the subversive role of jilbab's provided interesting additional information about how people could quietly resist the state. I suppose that I'm still curious, though, about the decision to have the female silent for the entire movie, a completely passive observer. Perhaps having heard Prakosa talk about her would clear up his inspiration for her character.

The text's explanations about the masked figures, both the hooded ones and the villagers, were interpretations that I may not have gotten. Except for the judge, all of the other groups of masked figures seem to find power in the masses and in this way almost the masks seem to represent a societal influence pressuring individuals into acting against their consciences. And even the judge acts as a benchmarks of justice, but a justice dictated by general societal values.

I found Prakosa's decision to translate dream sequences and real memories into parts of the film to be an interesting choice. On the one hand, they provide interesting glances into the actual, real lives of the different actors. However, so much of the rest of the film was highly political and addressed the general state of the country that some of the scenes ended up feeling a bit odd and out of place. I suppose that for me, the mixture of dream-like sequences and the nightmarish scenes with the hooded figures created an occasionally impenetrable density to scenes that I wasn't expecting for such a political film.

Ultimately, I did think that the political message of the film we explored in a number of complex ways. A lot of the specific historical details were probably lost on me, just because I am not very well versed with Indonesian history. Still, I found the juxtaposition of concert scenes and cinematic shorts quite thought-provoking. I am a bit hesitant to apply too much of the other theory we have studied to this film, because as Johanna mentioned, a lot of the theory seems aimed specifically at Western cultures. But one thing that I would still like to unpack a bit more is the female figure in the film, and her role and agency.

Note: Sorry if this post reads a bit strangely. I wrote most of it earlier today, and then got a bit stuck, and finished it after having written an 8 pg paper for another class. Suffice to say, I'm a bit brain dead