This is My Home, Come the Sleeping
Om Pius, “Ini rumah saya, come the sleeping . . .”
INDONESIA / 2019 / Indonesian / Color, B&W / Digital File / 81 min
Director: Halaman Papua
Photography: Alloysius Rahawadan, Bernard Koten, Gelar Agryano Soemantri, Mahardika Yudha
Editing: Mahardika Yudha, Syaiful Anwar
Music: Mambesak, Black Brothers
Producer: Yuki Aditya
Source: milisifilem
www.forumlenteng.org
Om Pius predicts winning lottery numbers for a living—working them out has become his daily silent routine. It is only during one of the frequent power outages that he rests his writing hand to tell us more about himself, little by little. The current reality of ongoing deforestation in Papua, memories of the tragedy that plagued his hometown, and the region’s history linger hazily on, in the midst of his seemingly peaceful life. The film itself takes as its title the words spoken by Pius when he first invited the crew into his home.
[Director’s Statement] Translating reality into dreams or translating dreams into reality is a filmic statement that has been going on since the birth of cinema. Cinema has the possibility to present things that we cannot capture in daily life (reality), and has opened up various possibilities through experimenting with its language to present “the real.” How simple events occur every day are dismantled to bring up various kinds of speculation about social problems that we experience. Through this film, we try to showcase “the real” through “reality” from the daily life of Uncle Pius.
How to discuss history and the impact of the experience of the history of violence for the Papuan people that has occurred since the Dutch colonial period until now? That is one big question that we all want to solve. How we can present other perspectives in seeing that problem which has become the daily life of Papuans, shared memories. Often when talking about Papua, it is only from the point of view of poverty and inequality in education, the issues of natural resources and exoticism, traditional and primitive life.
The perspective of just seeing the acceleration and failure of modernization in Papua often puts the Papuans as merely objects. Then, is there no other narrative to explain the failure of modernization in Papua since it entered in the Dutch colonial period, up to the period when Papua became part of Indonesia? How we can present other perspectives in seeing those problems which have become the daily life of the people of Papua?
By mish-mashing dreams and lotteries, we try to play in the realm of stereotyping and look for other possibilities in presenting Papuan society in the film. This film is a collaborative work that tries to present a relationship and dialogue between us in viewing Papuan society.
A platform that produces work in various media as a communication tool for discussing issues and society in Papua, one of which is using films. Halaman Papua was initiated by Forum Lenteng in 2013 as a collaborative work with collectives from Sentani, Kota Jayapura, Wamena, and Timika, focused on health issues and public health services in Papua. This platform was later developed to include broader discussion on social issues about society in Papua using a variety of media, along with a distribution of information approach using both analog and digital technology.
Interview