Photocopier (film)

Last updated
Photocopier
Photocopier film poster.jpg
Official poster
Indonesian Penyalin Cahaya
Directed by Wregas Bhanuteja
Screenplay by
Produced by
  • Adhyaksa Ekatama
  • Ajish Dibyo
Starring
CinematographyGunnar Nimpuno
Edited byAhmad Yuniardi
Music byYennu Ariendra
Production
companies
  • Rekata Studio
  • Kaninga Pictures
Distributed by Netflix
Release dates
  • October 8, 2021 (2021-10-08)(BIFF)
  • January 13, 2022 (2022-01-13)(Netflix)
CountryIndonesia
LanguageIndonesian

Photocopier (Indonesian : Penyalin Cahaya) is a 2021 Indonesian crime mystery drama film, co-written and directed by Wregas Bhanuteja in his feature-length directorial debut.

Contents

The film had its world premiere at the 26th Busan International Film Festival in October 2021, in the New Currents competition. The film won a total of twelve Citra Awards out of seventeen nominations, including the awards for Best Picture and Best Director. It won the most Citra Awards by a single film. [2]

Plot

Suryani (Sur) is a college student enrolled in a computer studies course, who is also part of her campus's theater group, Mata Hari. Sur designed a website for the group, which has helped to promote their image. When Mata Hari’s performance of “Medusa” is accepted for a festival in Kyoto, Sur joins a celebratory party with the other group members at leader Rama Soemarno's house. An older girl, Farah, advises Sur not to go to the party, and Sur’s strict father also warns her beforehand not to drink alcohol, but Sur ignores their advice.

The next day, Sur wakes up late and hungover, with few memories of the night before. At a meeting with her campus board to decide the question of her scholarship, she learns that selfies of herself whilst drunk have been posted online, although Sur cannot remember doing this. The board revokes her scholarship and, in addition, her angry father kicks her out of the family home, after telling her she did not come home until 3.00 am, carried by a man who woke the whole street up in the process.

Sur questions the other members of Mata Hari, trying to find out what happened to her the night before. One member, Anggun, admits to ordering a taxi for her at around 10 pm. Remembering that Tariq had given her a whiskey shot, Sur is convinced that she was drugged and decides to investigate.

Sur moves in with her friend Amin, who runs a photocopy business, and on the side illegally sells theses to students. When members of Mata Hari visit Amin’s business to print out copies of coursework, etc, from their phones, Sur, hiding upstairs, hacks into those phones from her laptop and downloads the data.

With Anggun, Sur goes to the taxi company, to find out why her journey home from the party took an inordinately long time. The driver, Burhan, explains that he had to stop to change a flat tyre.

Sur confronts the theatre group with photos and videos from the party, which suggest that Tariq drugged her. He protests his innocence and the whole group go to Rama’s house, to view his extensive video coverage of the party. The videos exonerate Tariq, and do not show anyone tampering with Sur’s phone while she was wasted, so the group assume she was responsible for posting the selfies of herself while drunk.

Sur noticed from Rama’s videos that she did not have more than four drinks at the party. With Amin, she carries out a “drinking experiment” to test whether four alcoholic drinks really is enough to make her pass out, but finds she can drink much more; this reinforces her conviction that she was drugged.

Sur analyses samples of Rama's installation art, which is supposedly photos of the Milky Way, but she notices similarities between the patterns and birthmarks on her back. Tampering with Rama’s Milky Way photos, she discovers they are actually photos of blemishes on human skin, photoshopped to look like a galaxy. She asks Amin to persuade Rama to visit the photocopy shop, so she can download files from his phone. But during Rama’s visit she overhears a conversation between him and Amin, which hint at some secret business between them. She challenges Amin, who confesses that he downloaded private pictures from students’ phones for Rama, who needed the photos “for inspiration”. Amin says he only did it to pay for his sister’s medical bills, but Sur leaves in disgust.

Sur presents her evidence to the Ethics Board at the campus, but both the evidence, and her identity, are leaked and go viral. Rama’s lawyer demands that Sur make a public apology on video and, urged by the college board and her parents - none of whom are prepared to take her side - she reluctantly agrees. However her mother Yati learns the truth after recognising pictures of her daughter’s birthmarks, and Sur tells her everything. Yati arranges for Sur to take shelter at the home of an acquaintance, Siti, who has medical knowledge. Siti tells Sur it is too late now to prove that she was drugged.

Farah and Tariq visit Sur and admit that they were also drugged by Rama and that pictures of their bodies appear in Rama’s installation art. Like Sur, Farah was given a ride home in Burhan’s taxi. Sur learns that Burhan's address is some distance from Rama's house, suggesting that her taxi ride home from the party was pre-arranged, and the reason it took so long was because Burhan stopped to take photographs of her body.

Tariq arranges a taxi ride with Burhan, having first “fixed” one of his tyres, causing a flat en route. It becomes obvious that Burhan does not have the physical strength to change a tyre, despite his having claimed to have done so during Sur’s taxi ride. Tariq knocks Burhan out and gets his phone, which contains videos of Rama's sexual abuse of eight people, including Sur, Farah and Tariq. Later, at Siti’s house, they debate what to do with this evidence, while Burhan recovers in another room.

Rama has hired fixers, disguised as some of the fumigation sprayers currently operating in the city to control an outbreak of mosquitoes, and they overpower everyone at the house, including Burhan; Rama then enters, dressed as Perseus and singing his dialogue from “Medusa”, symbolically saying that no one will believe their allegations, before burning Burhan's phone. He calls Farah and Tariq “Gorgons” and Sur “Medusa”, synonymous to demonic. Rama and his thugs then leave, while the others recover from the effects of the fumes.

The next day, Sur and Farah take Amin's photocopier to the campus's roof, where they print and distribute all the remaining evidence they have of Rama’s guilt. Gradually, other victims arrive, with their own evidence to print. Retrieving the papers, Anggun punches Rama. Sur, Farah, and Tariq then print scans of their faces.

Cast

Production

The production of Photocopier took place for twenty days in Jakarta during the COVID-19 pandemic and followed local COVID-19 safety protocols. [3]

Through Photocopier, Bhanuteja strived to give a depiction of a victim of sexual assaults, also spread awareness regarding to the topic. Previously, Bhanuteja along with his team, had researched about the topic for a year, including initiating conversations with the victims of sexual assaults. They also started discussions with some anti-rape activists, including actress Hannah Al Rashid, who was involved in the film's screenwriting. [4]

Release

Photocopier had its world premiere at the 26th Busan International Film Festival in October 2021, in the New Currents competition. [5] Netflix acquired the film's distribution rights, releasing it on January 13, 2022. [6]

Accolades

AwardDateCategoryRecipientResultRef.
Indonesian Film Festival 10 November 2021 Best Picture Adi Ekatama and Ajish DibyoWon [7]
Best Director Wregas Bhanuteja Won
Best Actor Chicco KurniawanWon
Best Actress Shenina Syawalita Cinnamon Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Jerome KurniaWon
Giulio ParengkuanNominated
Best Supporting Actress Dea PanendraNominated
Best Original ScreenplayWregas Bhanuteja and Henricus PriaWon
Best CinematographyGunnar NimpunoWon
Best Film EditingAhmad YuniardiWon
Best Visual EffectsStefanus Binawan UtamaNominated
Best SoundSutrisno and Satrio BudionoWon
Best Original ScoreYennu AriendraWon
Best Original SongMian Tiara ("Di Bawah Langit Raksasa")Won
Best Art DirectionDita GambiroWon
Best Costume DesignFadillah Putri YunidarWon
Best Make Up and HairstylingAstrid SambudionoNominated

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anggun</span> Indonesian singer-songwriter (born 1974)

Anggun Cipta Sasmi is an Indonesian and French singer, songwriter, and television personality. Born in Jakarta, she began performing at the age of seven and recorded a children's album two years later. She rose to fame in 1989 as a teenage rock star and by 1993 she had released five Indonesian-language studio albums. Rolling Stone listed her single "Mimpi" as one of the 150 Greatest Indonesian Songs of All Time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Krisdayanti</span> Indonesian singer, actress and politician

Kris Dayanti, often written mononymously as Krisdayanti, is an Indonesian singer and actress. She is the younger sister of Yuni Shara, another Indonesian singer. She is the daughter of Trenggono and Rachma Widadiningsih. At the age of 9, she sang a song for the movie Megaloman. On three years later, she released her first album, Biasa Saja, together with the soundtrack album for Catatan Si Emon. While still in high school, Krisdayanti participated in numerous singing and modelling competitions. In 1991, she was a finalist in the GADIS Sampul competition.

Nirina Raudatul Jannah Zubir, better known simply as Nirina Zubir, is an Indonesian actress and television presenter of Minangkabau descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikita Willy</span> Indonesian singer

Nikita Purnama Willy is an Indonesian actress, model and singer of Minangkabau descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adinia Wirasti</span> Indonesian actress

Adinia Wirasti Wahr, better known as Adinia Wirasti, is an Indonesian actress of Javanese descent. In 2008, she graduated from the New York Film Academy one year Screenwriting Program in Los Angeles, CA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nani Widjaja</span> Indonesian actress (1944–2023)

Nani Widjaja was an Indonesian actress and model who won two Citra Awards for Best Supporting Actress. She was best known for her role in television Bajaj Bajuri. She was the part of Classical Indonesian Cinema.

<i>Lovely Man</i> 2011 Indonesian film

Lovely Man is a 2011 Indonesian film written and directed by Teddy Soeriaatmadja. The film had its world premiere at the 2011 Busan International Film Festival to positive reviews on the segment "A Window on Asian Cinema". Donny Damara plays the starring role as Syaiful/Ipuy, a transgender woman in Jakarta. Actress Raihaanun plays the female leading role as Cahaya, Syaiful's long-lost 19-year-old daughter who comes to the city to look for him only to find out that her father is a transgender woman. This is their second film together after 2007 remake of drama Badai Pasti Berlalu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mouly Surya</span> Indonesian director and screenwriter

Mouly Surya is an Indonesian film director and screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wregas Bhanuteja</span> Indonesian director and screenwriter

Raphael Wregas Bhanuteja is an Indonesian film director and screenwriter. In 2016, Wregas became the first Indonesian director to win an award at Cannes Film Festival, for his short film Prenjak.

<i>The Queen of Black Magic</i> 2019 Indonesian supernatural horror film

The Queen of Black Magic is a 2019 Indonesian supernatural horror film directed by Kimo Stamboel and written by Joko Anwar. The film is a loose remake of the 1981 Indonesian horror film of the same name also produced by Rapi Films. It stars Ario Bayu, Hannah Al Rashid, Adhisty Zara, Ade Firman Hakim, Muzakki Ramdhan, and Ari Irham. Hakim received a posthumous Citra Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film.

Layla Majnun is a 2021 Indonesian drama film directed by Monty Tiwa, written by Alim Sudio and Monty Tiwa and starring Acha Septriasa, Reza Rahadian and Baim Wong.

Marissa Anita is an Indonesian journalist, actress and television news presenter. She began her acting career as a theatre actress in 2005, but rose to prominence in 2008 as a TV news reporter and later anchor for Metro TV. Her acting career took off in 2013 with a supporting role in Lucky Kuswandi's drama In the Absence of the Sun, for which she won a Maya Award for Best New Actress.

<i>Yuni</i> (film) 2021 film

Yuni is an internationally co-produced drama film, written and directed by Kamila Andini. It stars Arawinda Kirana in the title role.

Bidadari Mencari Sayap is a 2020 Indonesian melodrama film directed and co-written by Aria Kusumadewa. The film stars Leony and Rizky Hanggono.

Paranoia is a 2021 Indonesian drama thriller film directed and co-written by Riri Riza, produced by long-time collaborator Mira Lesmana. The film stars Nirina Zubir, Nicholas Saputra, Caitlin North Lewis and Lukman Sardi.

Preman is a 2021 Indonesian action film, directed, co-produced and written by Randolph Zaini in his directorial debut. The film stars Khiva Iskak and Muzzaki Ramdhan. The film had its world premiere at the 2021 Seattle International Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shenina Cinnamon</span> Indonesian actress

Shenina Syawalita Cinnamon is an Indonesian actress. She made her lead role debut in Photocopier, which also led her being nominated for the Citra Award for Best Actress at the 2021 Indonesian Film Festival.

The 41st Indonesian Film Festival ceremony, presented by Indonesian Film Board and Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, honored the achievement in Indonesian cinema released from 1 October 2020 to 31 August 2021. The ceremony was held on 10 November 2021 at the Assembly Hall, Jakarta Convention Center, Jakarta, Indonesia, and presented by actors Tissa Biani, Prilly Latuconsina, Angga Yunanda and Jefri Nichol. Coinciding with Heroes' Day, President Joko Widodo awarded the Father of Indonesian Cinema, Usmar Ismail posthumously as a National Hero of Indonesia.

<i>Andragogy</i> (film) 2023 drama film

Andragogy is a 2023 drama film written and directed by Wregas Bhanuteja. The film stars Sha Ine Febriyanti as a school teacher whose reputation and career prospects get jeopardized after a video of her confronting a line-cutter goes viral.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siti Zainab</span> Indonesian actress, singer, dancer, and homemaker (193?–2014)

Siti Zainab binti Kimpal, credited as Zainab, also known as Inab, was an Indonesian actress, singer, dancer, and homemaker who was active in the 1940s and 1950s. She was known for her appearance in Singapore film industry along with Kasma Booty and Siput Sarawak. Zainab was the second wife of Zakaria bin Muhammad Amin, an ulama, as well the mother of 7 children, including Gamal Abdul Nasir Zakaria and Rita Puspa Zakaria. Her career were cut short after her marriage when she decided to retired for taking care of his husband children from previous marriage and became a homemaker.

References

  1. Swaragita, Gisela (January 10, 2022). "'Photocopier' scriptwriter removed from credits following sexual abuse allegations". The Jakarta Post . Archived from the original on January 10, 2022. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
  2. "Penyalin Cahaya, Film Terbaik Piala Citra FFI 2021" [Photocopier, the Citra Award 2021 Best Picture]. CNN Indonesia. November 10, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  3. "Cerita Kru Penyalin Cahaya Syuting 20 Hari kala Pandemi" [Photocopier crew about shooting for twenty days during the pandemic]. CNN Indonesia . September 3, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  4. "Potret Darurat Kekerasan Seksual di Film Penyalin Cahaya" [The depiction of sexual assaults in Photocopier]. CNN Indonesia. September 2, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  5. Frater, Patrick (August 31, 2021). "Films From India, Iran and South Korea Dominate Busan Festival's New Currents Competition". Variety . Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  6. "Netflix to stream Indonesian drama 'Photocopier' starting Jan. 13". Coconuts Media. November 8, 2021. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  7. Retno, Dewi (10 October 2021). Marvela (ed.). "Ali & Ratu Ratu Queens dan Penyalin Cahaya Dominasi Nominasi FFI 2021" [Ali & Ratu Ratu Queens and Photocopier dominate 2021 Indonesian Film Festival nominations]. Tempo (in Indonesian). Retrieved 11 October 2021.

Notes

  1. Henricus Pria as scriptwriter was uncredited in the end-credit of the Netflix version due to reports of alleged involvement in sexual abuse cases. [1]