The Indonesian cinema, distorting mirror of a changing society

Abstract

Indonesian cinema, which is a major part of the cultural life of young urban people from the middle and upper-classes, is made by directors for whom this national market represents the main target. Their films thus deal with subjects which especially concern this type of public. These works, which go beyond a simple translation/reformulation that would just be a reflection of the interrogations and desires of the Indonesian yuppies contribute to legitimizing and addressing these questions. Indonesian cinema has taken advantage of the liberalization of the rights of expression following the process of democratization to stage and report (seen here through six examples) on several tensions and uncertainties in society: the role of the local cultures facing the national-modernism from Jakarta, the place of Islam in society, and other phenomena of attraction-repulsion about global flows which question inherited traditions.