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Di rumah si miskin
Extract Two
Extract 2: Scene 1 - Saat di tengah kota
| Content | Issues |
|---|---|
| Gempol and Andri are sitting on top of a freight carriage on a train. They are carefree and happy. | Conflict & relationships |
| The camera cuts to the destruction of the kampung where Gempol lives. The scene is chaotic, with burning buildings, fire hoses and distraught residents being led away by officials. | Poverty & wealth
Urbanisation |
Analysis
In the beginning of this scene the director depicts the boys playing together, emphasising their developing friendship. We see Andri participating in the unfamiliar slum milieu of Gempol's world, without the knowledge or permission of his father. However, it is in this situation that Andri seems to feel free.
The destruction of the kampung reminds the viewer of the disregard shown to the poor by the government when the city is on show during the Hari Kemerdekaan celebrations. The authorities are herding the slum dwellers on to trucks, armed with some of their meagre belongings. This begs the question "Where are they going?"
Questions
- What does his friendship with Gempol mean for Andri?
- What is the effect of repeated cuts from the scene in
the train to the scene in the kampung?
- Comment on the sound effects and the music in this scene.
Extract 2: Scene 2 - Andri dan Gempol tiba di rumah Gempol
| Content | Issues |
|---|---|
| The boys return to the ruined kampung and Gempol calls to his family. Unyeng appears and explains that he does not know where Gempol's family has been taken. He believes his family will have a better life and at least receive three meals a day. | Urbanisation
Poverty & wealth |
| Gempol rejects Unyeng's suggestion that Gempol should go with his family. | Values & traditions
Conflict & relationships |
| Pak Dimik arrives. Andri insists that Gempol goes home with him. | Values & traditions
Conflict & relationships |
| Gempol refuses the invitation, choosing instead to go with Unyeng. Unyeng also mentions that he and Gempol will be in trouble if Pak Dimik and Andri stay. | Values & traditions
Conflict & relationships Poverty & wealth |
| Unyeng talks about the SKY. As long as they have the sky they need not be afraid of losing their home. | Values & traditions
Poverty & wealth |
Analysis
The camera uses a long shot to provide a contrast between the scene of desolation at the kampung with the flow of traffic on the highway in the background. This stream of traffic is unchanging and creates irony because everything has changed in Gempol's world.
Unyeng's monologue about the sky being his home is significant because he speaks in a way that suggests a learned response to all the hardships which he faces as a homeless person. When talking to Gempol, he frequently describes their plight in terms of ‘nasib'.
It is the first time reference is made to the title of the film.
The framing also highlights relationships and the social separation of Unyeng and Gempol from Pak Dimik and Andri. Pak Dimik comforts Andri, while Unyeng comforts Gempol (In both cases an older male, but not the father, is looking after the boys).
The presence of the Mercedes emphasises Andri's wealth, while the canal and the broken doll floating in it emphasises Gempol's loss, as well as the loss of the shanty dwellers.
This scene is accompanied by melancholic music and Andri's farewell cry to Gempol.
Questions
- How does this scene reflect the negative aspects of
urbanisation for the urban poor?
- Where do you think the inhabitants of the
kampung may have been taken?
- "Appearances are more important to the government
than the lives of the slum dwellers." Discuss this
with reference to events in the film.
- What is the significance of nasib in
Unyeng's explanation of what has happened to
Gempol's family and friends?
- How does the director use visual and audio techniques
to create a sense of destruction and desolation?
- Comment on the reference to the film's title in this scene.
Task
Imagine that you are a journalist. Write an article on the government's clean-up program before Hari Kemerdekaan.
Extract 2: Scene 3 - Di Rumah Andri ada pesta
| Content | Issues |
|---|---|
| Cut to evening city lights and skyline. Piano music overlays this scene, which links to the piano player at Andri's house where a party is in progress. | Poverty & wealth |
| Andri's father introduces his children to the guests, announcing that Peris has been accepted at university and jokes about Andri's aspiration to be President. | Values & traditions |
| The pianist jokes about Andri's father's business going bankrupt. Andri's response suggests a perceived problem about the amount of time his father devotes to his work compared to him. | Conflict & relationships |
| Cut to the night scene of Gempol, shivering after having a bath, and Unyeng trying to create warmth with a fire. | Poverty & wealth |
| Cut to Andri's bedroom where he is getting changed and where his father admonishes him for causing him embarrassment with his bad manners. His father forbids him from using the car after school again. Andri immediately asks his father about payment for his school excursion and his father tells him to speak to Peris about it. | Conflict & relationships
Values & traditions |
| Andri says the prayer that Balung has taught him in front of the photo of his mother. There is a fade-out to the cityscape. | Values & traditions |
Analysis
The flow of night traffic links the urban environments inhabited by Gempol and Andri. The luxury and opulence of Andri's home is in stark contrast to the previous scene of desolation at the kampung.
Andri mirrors his father's behaviour in his attitude towards Balung as she kneels in front of him in a typical servant role and asks him to dress properly and to behave himself. We see ongoing tension between Andri and Peris. The relationship between Andri's father and his children is heightened as he seeks to gain prestige by his announcement of Peris' impending university career and Andri's aspiration to be president. For the first time in the film Andri's father is openly affectionate. Ironically it is at this point that Andri expresses his true feelings about his absentee father.
Andri is accused by his father of behaving in a common way and not in keeping with his class. He issues an ultimatum about not having any further use of the car after school. The camera captures the warm glow of the lighting in Andri's room and then cuts to the stark, cold, misty almost surreal atmosphere of the scene where Unyeng and Gempol are trying to stay warm by the fire.
This scene is so extreme in its visual effects and exaggeration of Gempol's poverty that it further highlights the differences in the boys' circumstances. From a metaphysical viewpoint, however, Gempol has Unyeng to keep him company whilst Andri appears isolated and alone.
The reference to becoming president could be a criticism of former president Suharto. It is necessary for Bung Kecil to learn about the hardships of the people first hand in order to understand their suffering.
Questions
- Compare the relationship Andri has with Pak Dimik and
Balung to the relationship he has with his father and
Peris. In your answer refer to this and other scenes in the
film.
- Discuss the impact of western values in the lives of
Andri and his sister.
- Why is Andri reprimanded by his father and why is his
freedom curtailed?
- Explain the symbolism of the traffic scenes that
punctuate views of Andri's and Gempol's lives.
- How does the director contrast the circumstances of
Andri and Gempol at the end of this scene?
- Discuss the significance of Andri's prayer.
Task
Imagine you are Andri's father. Discuss Andri's behaviour at the party with a close friend.
Extract 2: Scene 4 - Perjalanan Unyeng dan Gempol
| Content | Issues |
|---|---|
| Unyeng and Gempol are walking through a dark, desolate alley. Unyeng compares the life of the homeless to that of snails. Gempol hints that the authorities destroy homes like his every year in preparation for the Independence Day celebrations. Unyeng delivers another monologue about the nature of development. | Urbanisation
Values & traditions |
Analysis
A medium long shot, back-lit by strong light, presents Unyeng and Gempol in shadowed silhouette. Their faces are obscured and they appear as colourless, wraith-like figures, stereotypical of the homeless.
The snail analogy is significant. The snail carries its belongings from place to place, is seen as a blot on the landscape and is easily crushed underfoot. Snails also clean rubbish from the environment. In this way Gempol's occupation as a pemulung can be likened to a snail.
Note the level of Unyeng's language in his monologue about development.
Questions
- What techniques are used to create atmosphere in this
scene? What is the effect of these techniques?
- What is the significance of the "snail"
analogy drawn by Unyeng?
- What is the role of Unyeng in this scene?
- Comment on the levels of language used by Unyeng in this scene.
Task
Imagine you are Unyeng. Write a monologue in which you reflect on your life over the last thirty years.