Page - 20 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/01

20 | Lucien van Liere www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/1, 15–34 communists depicted as atheists. Only since Suharto stepped down have care- ful efforts been made to understand what happened at academic,17 artistic18 and social19 levels. SCREENING THE GENOCIDE IN THE POST-SUHARTO ERA In post-1965 movies, allusions to the atrocities are rare, even absent. Narratives that ran counter to Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI were dangerous to tell. Since the collapse of the New Order regime in 1998, however, the atrocities have been themes in some Indonesian drama-movies and documentaries. Some of these films narrate stories that are carefully situated against the background of the 1965 coup and the subsequent purge, but without addressing the mass killings directly. Gie (Riri Riza, ID 2005) follows Soe Hok Gie, an independent and critical stu- dent. The PKI is represented by Gie’s friend Tan, who is seduced by the party not knowing what awaits him. Although Gie urges his friend to relinquish his ties with the PKI, Tan does not listen. Another example is the intense movie Puisi tak Terkuburkan (Unburied Poetry; released in English as A Poet: Uncon- cealed Poetry, Garin Nugroho, ID 2000). The film was nominated for the Silver Screen Award for Best Asian Feature Film and won the Silver Leopard Video Award in the year 2000 at the Locarno International Film Festival. This movie shows the experience of Ibrahim Kadir, played by Kadir himself, as a prisoner falsely accused of being a communist. His fellow inmates are communists who are executed one by one. The movie is a tense way of witnessing and – in the end – challenging the violence of the New Order regime. Other undertakings are the work of Putu Oka Sukanta from the Lembaga Kreativitas Kemanusiaan (Organisation for Human Creativity, LKK). Sukanta, who was imprisoned on account of his membership of an organisation allied to the PKI, has made an enormous effort to give the victims of the G30S and their children a voice, but, as Ariel Heryanto observes, the films made by the LKK have had limited impact owing to their subject matter, the people in the movie (most are elderly) and the style of delivery.20 Among the very small num- ber of movies addressing the violence directly are Putih abu-abu: Masa lalu perempuan (Grey White: Women’s Past, Syarikat, ID 2006) and the documen- tary movie Mass Grave (Lexy Rambadeta, ID 2002). The former film was made by secondary-school students and contains six short movies of interviews with 17 Luhulima 2006; Ling 2010; see also: Hughes 2002; Roosa 2006. 18 Latief 2000. 19 Anderson 2012, 274. 20 Heryanto 2012, 228.