Considering Humanity

There are cinema actors who are insensitive to exploiting the women in their stories. Gender sensitivity is brought up again.

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One of the scenes in the film Vina: Before 7 Daysi.

In the midst of the improvement in the Indonesian film ecosystem with various works that arouse feelings, the enrichment of the gender perspective does not seem to have been evenly absorbed by film industry players. One thing to remember is that women are not a source of profit, especially when they are victims of violence.

On Tuesday afternoon (5/21/2024), the CGV cinema lobby located on the top floor of Slipi Jaya shopping center was quite crowded. Out of the four available studios, only one was heavily visited by visitors that day. This studio screened the film Vina: Sebelum 7 Hari, which claimed to be based on the true story of Vina, a 16-year-old teenager who became a victim of rape and femicide in Cirebon in 2016.

From mothers whose ages are estimated to be over 40 years old, couples who are dating, fathers and sons, to two teenage children aged around 15 years entered the studio. In fact, if you look at the age rating for this film, it is intended for viewers over 17 years old considering that it is full of violent scenes and even rape scenes that have no empathy for the victim. In fact, there is no trigger warning at the beginning of the film regarding scenes and content that have the potential to trigger trauma for survivors and victims.

Referring to the Ministry of Education and Culture Regulation Number 14 of 2019 regarding Guidelines and Criteria for Censorship, Audience Age Classification, and Withdrawal of Films and Film Ads from Circulation, visual rape is one of the things that should be censored.

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However, when contacted on Tuesday (May 21, 2024), Chairman of the Film Censorship Institute (LSF), Rommy Fibri Hardianto, explained that this film is classified as mature for 17-year-olds due to its title, theme, scenes, and dialogue being suitable for that age range. "Sexual and violent scenes are presented proportionally and do not contain sadism. In other words, the content of the film encourages positive curiosity," said Rommy.

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One of the scenes in the film Vina: Before 7 Days.

He added that this film is a cinematic telling of a single case. In response to constructive criticism, Rommy appreciates this. Rommy also explains another reason why the film passed censorship, which is because the scenes of violence and rape have minimal nudity and the rapists are not portrayed as savage and wild in their sexual exploitation.

It seems that it is not in line with what many viewers witnessed who then uploaded it on social media. The rapists are depicted with satisfied expressions while abusing Vina with the camera panning closely to each expression. Very insensitive to the victim. What's even sadder is that this is considered ridiculous because the response from netizens and even moviegoers actually laughed a little or even normalized sexual violence as long as the perpetrator had a good-looking face. Pity.

This condition also indirectly refutes the claim of the film director Anggy Umbara who stated that there are messages and lessons that can be taken from this film. On the other hand, he also aims to uncover a case that has been stalled for eight years and it has been proven that the case is now being investigated again. On this side, there is some truth. This film has a driving force so that this case is widely discussed again.

Besides, doing good has to be done in a bad way.

Anggy's choice of the horror genre also relies on true stories. "Because in real-life stories, the peak of revealing the crime is from supernatural events and there is evidence," said Anggy, who was also agreed upon by Bonty Umbara as the screenplay writer that the basis of the story is supernatural recordings and a collection of news reports.

Not sensitive

According to the Executive Director of the Humanist and Social Innovation Foundation Tunggal Pawestri, this justification-flavored explanation actually shows a lack of understanding regarding gender issues and sexual violence on the part of film industry players. “The nuance of wanting to do something good (disclosing the case), that's actually fine. But if you then hide behind that, then what's the matter. "After all, doing good must be done in a bad way," said Tunggal.

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Question and answer atmosphere from the audience and the teamMarlina the Murderer in Four Acts after the screening inside the Croisette Theater at the 2017 Cannes International Film Festival in Cannes, France, Wednesday (24/5/2017). Marlina is the only Indonesian and even Southeast Asian film at this festival as well as the only Asian film screened because it passed the Quinzaines Des Realisateurs (Directors' Fortnight) selection.

According to him, the handling of sexual violence cases cannot be equated with robbery cases or other criminal cases. Because there is dignity being attacked in cases of sexual violence. Moreover, in this case, the victim is a minor. Therefore, research and discussions with parties, institutions, and communities who understand this are needed to avoid further victim exploitation.

A number of Indonesian films that deal with the theme of sexual violence are actually based on the right track. For example, Women From Rote Island (2023) which does not need to show explicit scenes of rape but is able to make the audience aware of the emergency of sexual violence. There is also 27 Steps of May (2018) which neatly depicts the struggles of sexual violence survivors and their families.

Apart from that, there are Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (2017), The Copy of Light (2021), to God, Allow Me to Sin (2023) which shows the strength of survivors to fight their abusers and the system in their own way. However, these films are packaged in a drama style, not imaginative horror which actually makes victims of sexual violence repeat victims.

Referring to the National Commission on Women, one type of sexual violence is sexual exploitation. According to the ECPAT International Information Pocket Book, there is a term called commercial sexual exploitation of children, which means the use of children for sexual purposes to gain profit in the form of money, goods, or beneficial services for the perpetrators, intermediaries, or other parties. Based on Law Number 23 of 2002 concerning Child Protection, a child is defined as someone who is under 18 years of age.

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Lutesha plays Farah in the film Copier of Light

Separately, horror film script writer, Lele Laila said that sexual scenes are one of the elements that are often present in Indonesian horror films. However, there is a big difference between sex scenes and scenes of sexual violence. “The sex scenes show the characters interacting with full awareness. "Meanwhile, scenes of sexual violence show characters from one gender who are helpless because of power relations and are usually women," said Lele.

Sexual violence is the most dishonorable crime. It is insane to repeatedly recount rape in the same manner in a content.

In making a film that contains sexual violence, Lele, who comes from a criminology background, emphasizes the importance of understanding victimology, which is the study of crime victims. This is to prevent victims from experiencing multiple victimizations.

"Sexual violence is the most dishonorable crime. It is insane to repeatedly retell rape in the same manner in a repeated content," said Lele.

Because of this, Lele continued, filmmakers need to be careful when telling and depicting the helplessness of victims in films. For example, a film can show the impact of sexual violence on the victim or the victim's resistance to the perpetrator rather than the scene of the crime taking place, as he did in Qorin (2022).

"We must not show the helplessness of the victims again. If it happens, unconsciously we ourselves will be the ones who are harassing the victims shown on the cinema screen for two hours," he said.

In addition, filmmakers do not need to romanticize the perpetrators in their films, such as through the selection of attractive actors or scenes that show the perpetrator's satisfaction in a vulgar manner. "That is part of the dangerous romanticization and dramatization of the perpetrator as it will make the audience sympathize and defend the perpetrator," said Lele.

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The film KKN in Penari Village, one of the films whose script was written by Lele Laila.

Regarding women being chosen as the representation of terror in horror films, Lele said that compared to men, women are more attractive to the market to become ghosts. Women have characteristics that can be made more terrifying, such as long hair and a high-pitched crying voice. However, this is an outdated formula from the New Order era that unfortunately some still maintain.

Women are often portrayed as powerless figures. Only after dying and becoming ghosts are they able to seek revenge. "That is a sad portrayal of women. However, in recent years, we can see that there are depictions of women as protagonists in their own stories, empowered, and having dreams. They seek ways to escape from problems without having to wait for men's help," said Lele.

Unfortunately, the awareness to showcase the powerful side of women seems to have not been possessed by all horror movie makers, who are mostly men. "There is still a patriarchal mindset that is trapped," said Lele.

As a player in the industry, Lele realizes that not every film needs to be an educational platform. However, horror films, as the most popular genre in Indonesia, still need to be a responsible entertainment experience.

"With the ongoing popularity of films with the same old formula, it shows that the public's awareness is still there. As filmmakers, we cannot blame the audience, but we can incorporate values in the film so that the audience's discussions become wiser, not perpetuating that helplessness," says Lele.

Be careful

Meanwhile, Producer from Come and See Pictures Production House, Tia Hasibuan, emphasizes the importance of initial research in the process of story development and film production, which must be carried out with great care and not in a rush. With accurate and complete research, this can also help filmmakers avoid the possibility of deviating or problematic storytelling.

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One of the scenes from the filmSiksa Kubur, starring Christine Hakim as Nani and Arswendy Bening Swara as Pandi.

According to Tia, his party took care as much as possible so that when making the film they did not exploit anything. "Let the film itself tell the story to the audience without having any sensational gimmicks behind it," he concluded.

A similar cautious approach was also expressed by the founder and executive producer of the production house Rapi Films, Sunil T Samtani. Sunil explained that at the beginning of each film production, they will first discuss and seek a lot of input from the internal team.

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This is especially done if the theme to be raised is considered sensitive. Sunil reminded the importance of filmmakers not to exploit the storyline or characters of the films they make, including if they are related to true events.

"But personally, I prefer the film to come from our own intellectual property rather than buying it from someone else. That way, I can have more freedom in developing the story," added Sunil.

Gender sensitivity

Tunggal emphasized again to the film industry players to sharpen their sensitivity and understanding. This also applies to stakeholders, such as LSF for example. "Although there are guidelines, LSF members still need to understand the perspective as well as how translation works visually with gender sensitivity. Sexual violence must also be understood not only as rape, but also other forms of harassment," said Tunggal.

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One of the scenes from the film Siksa Kubur

On the other hand, the male or male-gazed point of view in this film is easily perceived by the audience. One of them is that when packaging films with women as victims of sexual violence, sometimes there are still directors who have a tendency to exploit this according to the image in their heads, especially if they are men. As a result, it can certainly cause trauma for survivors and their families.

Even though an interesting story doesn't have to exploit certain genders or show hatred for women.

Even highlighting the stories of women who are not just victims, this male-gazed side still often appears. Although recently more and more directors, both women and men, have begun to have gender sensitivity so that sexist and misogynist content no longer appears in their works. Apart from respect, voices for equality and empowered women also resonated.

"However, an interesting story does not have to exploit a particular gender or show hatred towards women. Creativity should also be built on respect for human values. Stop making women repeatedly become victims," said Tunggal.

Don't let Indonesian cinema, which is currently booming, turn around because it is reluctant to respect humanity.