ART | FILM | SURABAYA | INDONESIA | 2024
Orasis Art Space kembali menghadirkan festival film mereka yang kedua kalinya. Festival kali ini bertajuk Kinekini Moving Image Screening. Selama tiga pekan sejak tanggal 15 Maret 2024 sampai tanggal 7 April 2024, selain pemutaran film, Orasis menyuguhkan rangkaian acara lain seperti yang sudah dijelaskan di artikel sebelumnya yang membahas acara Kinekini Moving Image Screening secara keseluruhan. Acara yang akan disorot dalam artikel ini adalah Director Talks bersama Khozy Rizal yang menjadi agenda khusus untuk memperingati Hari Film Nasional pada tanggal 30 Maret 2024.
Agenda ini dibuka dengan sambutan dari Orasis Art Space, IFI Surabaya, dan Screen Pills. Kemudian, film karya sutradara asal Makassar, Khozy Rizal, yang lolos seleksi film pendek di Cannes Film Festival di Prancis, bertajuk “Basri and Salma in Never-ending Comedy” diputar. Dari sekitar 4.000 film yang masuk, film ini termasuk ke dalam 11 film yang lolos untuk kategori film pendek.
Film berdurasi 15 menit ini membawa para pengunjung merasakan beragam gejolak emosi. Setelah film selesai diputar, Khozy Rizal menjadi narasumber Director Talks, menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan baik dari pengunjung maupun dar Screen Pills sebagai pemandu diskusi.
Screen Pills: Bagaimana perasaan kamu ketika dihubungi oleh Cannes Film Festival?
Pada awalnya kami mendapat kabar kalau film “Basri and Salma” itu lolos seleksi di Cannes tapi dari section lain, bukan dari short films section. Senang sekali saya karena ini adalah pertanda baik, tetapi ketika saya berbicara dengan produser saya, John, dia bilang jangan dulu diterima. Saya bingung, “Why? It’s already big!”
“Don’t say yes first ‘cause I’m going to try ask other section.”
John menghubungi short films section dan mengatakan bahwa film “Basri and Salma” lolos seleksi critic’s week section, bagaimana kalau mereka mencoba menonton film ini untuk diseleksi di short film section.
Kemudian orang yang dihubungi meminta waktu sekitar dua minggu untuk menonton film “Basri and Salma” karena masih ada banyak film yang masuk yang masih harus mereka tonton untuk diseleksi.
Lalu ketika saya sudah nyaris kehilangan harapan soal lolos tidaknya film ini di short films section, ketika saya sedang mengendarai sepeda motor, saya mendapat telepon dari nomor tidak dikenal. Pada awalnya tidak saya angkat karena saya kira itu scam, penipuan. Tapi berkali-kali saya ditelepon terus sampai akhirnya saya coba angkat dan ternyata itu dari Cannes Film Festival yang mengabarkan kalau film “Basri and Salma” lolos masuk seleksi short film section. Saya senang banget di situ sampai teriak!
Screen Pills: Ketika menunggu pengumuman dari Cannes, apakah kamu sedang mengerjakan proyek film lain?
Tidak, saya sedang tidak mengerjakan proyek film apa pun saat itu. Karena ketika membuat film “Basri and Salma”, saya cuma ingin membuat film tersebut, nothing to lose. Jadi ketika shooting film selesai itu ya, ya sudah. Apa ya, yang masih buka? Sundance sudah tutup. Yang masih buka Cannes. Ya sudah kami coba masukkan ke Cannes.
Audience (Joel): How do you feel having our culture to be exposed like that? Do you feel guilty, or do you feel scared?
No, because I feel like this kind of experience wasn’t a unique experience from Makassar but can be from any household in Indonesia. I don’t feel guilty at all. Maybe because I was so angry writing the story. And the original story wasn’t about how bad some Indonesian Muslim conservative families are, but it came from odong-odong. I want to make a film from odong-odong because it looks cinematic and some things that are strongly connected with odong-odong are children and family. The whole situation you just watched actually happened in my family.
Because, if I look back to my previous films, every time I wrote stories, it always came from my resentment, like rage towards people that I don’t like; my family. I don’t feel safe at home. Home is supposed to be the place where I could be myself and it’s really hard for me to feel that way. I think it’s my way of coping with my trauma. Some people find this film is triggering but for me this is actually my way to get away with that trauma and make it as a humor.
Screen Pills: Kamu memaknai komedi di film ini seperti apa? Karena katanya komedi itu sesuatu yang paling sulit untuk ditulis.
Actually, I wasn’t trying to make this film in a comedy form at all because, you see, the Indonesian title is called “Basri Dan Salma dalam Komedi yang Terus Berputar”; “komedi” in Indonesia both means “comedy” and “merry-go-round”. It’s a metaphor for their household, their whole situation in their family; a never-ending comedy. I wasn’t trying to make it a comedy but to see their whole situation. I think it’s up to the audience if they want to perceive it as a comedy. Because when this film was screened in Cannes, nobody was laughing. My first objection was I wanted to make people feel suffocated and disturbed by the whole situation.
Readesign Magazine: Apakah ini pertama kalinya film “Basri and Salma” tayang di Indonesia?*
*(Karena film ini disponsori oleh pemerintahan Singapura yang mana terdapat kontrak di mana film ini harus tayang di festival-festival di Singapura terlebih dahulu dan memiliki tenggat waktu tertentu sebelum akhirnya bisa tayang di Asia Tenggara selain Singapura)
Di indonesia, ini pemutaran keempat atau kelima.
Readesign Magazine: Fakta bahwa film ini disponsori oleh pemerintah negara lain, apakah memang sulit untuk mendapatkan sponsor dari pemerintah Indonesia?
Kamu mau membuat film seperti ini dengan batuan pemerintah? Tidak bisa…
Dalam sebuah forum, seseorang dari mereka pernah bertanya, “Mengapa ya, tidak ada film dari Indonesia yang bisa lolos festival internasional? Apa karena film makers di Indonesia adalah storyteller yang buruk?”
Personally, I believe that every filmmaker in the world is a great storyteller. I believe that, but I think we just lack the freedom to let our voice out as we want; there are so many restrictions like we can’t talk about queer people, profanities, etc. I think that’s the thing. Not because we are bad storytellers. We got sponsored by the Singapore government, and the Philippines government for post-production, and we got nothing from the Indonesian government before we made it to Cannes.
Readesign Magazine: Selama tur ke berbagai festival film di berbagai negara karena film “Basri and Salma”, ada kah budaya sinema negara lain yang ingin dibawa ke budaya sinema di Indonesia?
What I found from those festivals is the privilege of watching other great films like… “Basri and Salma” is nothing. We’re benefiting from the medium we use, short films, and I think short films must be different from feature films. Short films give us challenges in making a breakthrough in cinema. That’s why I keep making short films. Feature films are good but like, for example, Philippines has great short films. I worship them. I think they combine so many elements; they combine fiction, documentary, archives, and many other things in a cohesive work. They’re close to order. In most feature films, the story is about someone who wants to achieve or achieve something and then there is an obstacle, and I’m tired of that.
Audience: Could you tell me how you coordinate the shots to make a film like we just seen just now?
The production went very well. I think this is the smoothest and most fun film to be produced ever. Because we were all excited when we worked on this film. I really love the actors because they are not professional actors and they just like themselves being themselves. They were having fun and they also having roller coaster moments shooting the scenes because there are fighting scene, right? And after I said CUT for that scene the actor was like HUHHHH (exhale deeply).
Audience (Raka): Film ini membicarakan keluarga. Apakah film ini pernah ditunjukkan ke keluarga dan bagaimana tanggapan mereka?
Sebelum terpilih di Cannes, mama saya pernah tanya, “Kamu tuh ke luar negeri terus, tapi kita enggak pernah menonton film kamu”. Kukasih tonton lah satu, “Basri and Salma”. Duduk diapit kedua orang tua saya dengan laptop di pangkuan. My mom was so disappointed. “I don’t want our family to watch this. This is so disappointing.” Ketika terpilih di Cannes, orang-orang dari kementrian berdatangan, dan media mulai memuat, baru lah mama saya bilang “Oh my God! I’m so proud of you! Congratulation!”
Audience: How could you make a strong character that attracts audiences in a very short time?
I love writing strong characters. When I was writing those characters, especially Salma, I was scrolling through the actress’s Instagram because she was following me from my first short film and I followed her back and she’s giving Salma energy. She’s kind of the muse of the character. So, what happened was, she was on Instagram. She’s on social media a lot and complaining a lot! Such as how she’s a Muslim Makassar woman who doesn’t wear hijab and she was like… “F*ck you all! I’m not wearing hijab and it’s not your f*cking business!” And I was like… hmmm this is Salma. I want to cast her.
Basically, Basri and Salma got infused with a bit of myself. Like my sassiness, I pour it into Salma, and myself when I meet my family, I pour it into Basri.
Screen Pills: Budaya sinema anak muda di sana (Prancis) saat ini itu seperti apa?
Di setiap festival tipikal penontonnya itu berbeda-beda. Saya itu sebetulnya agak kurang suka sama penoton di Cannes karena mereka seperti menahan diri untuk bereaksi dengan film yang mereka tonton.
For example, there is a film screened, and the film makes me want to scream, but why is nobody screaming? I think they were too respectful of the cinema to the point they worshiped them. I’m grateful to have the luxury to watch those films in Cannes, but the audience itself is very weird. But the audiences from other festivals are great.
readesignmagazine.com 
Leave a comment