At around 2:45 p.m. on December 5, 2023, Bioskop Sonobudoyo was packed with a queue of people who eagerly filled every available seat. They had come to watch the second showing of Feeling the Apocalypse (Chen Sing Yap, 2022) and RITUAL, Part IV: The Blends (Robby Ocktavian, 2023). Both films are part of the Perspektif program, which this year focuses on the topic of anthropocene. In this session, director Robby Ocktavian was present to discuss the film RITUAL, Part IV: The Blends (2023). The film is a reinterpretation of a literary work (novel) by Samarinda writer, Korrie Layun Rampan, entitled Ceremony and focuses on Hemisphere 4: Nalin Taun. Based on the work, the film discusses ceremonies and life cycles contextualized with contemporary life. The film also captures the anthropocene phenomenon by criticizing environmental destruction based on the narrative of the novel Upacara.
Moderated by Ronny Agustinus, Perspektif’s programmer, the audience was given the opportunity to join a Q&A session with Robby Ocktavian. The session began with a question criticizing the title and the form of symbolic rituals not evident throughout the film. Responding to the question, Robby explained that the title of the film refers to the interpretation of the novel Ceremony. Based on the narrative in the novel, ceremonies are performed to keep away from bad things. However, at this time, because things are already bad, the rituals that occur are repetitive life and rites that are accommodated by a system.
On this occasion, Robby also explained that the overlapping voices that appeared at the end of the film were a series of interviews with various sources from various backgrounds. Overlapping information that covers each other becomes an experience that Robby tries to offer through the film. The incompleteness of unconnected information creates a collage of Samarinda city in a series of discourses on one screen. This form is an effort to visualize the overlapping of ecological, social and cultural discourses to see the position of Samarinda and the centrality of the river there. From the overlapping information, the issue of tourism becomes a sector that is criticized through anthropocene discourse. Robby explained that the tourism that was created was only an effort to reveal the exoticism of nature without any sustainability efforts. Similarly, urban tourism offered in the city does not have strong roots in the community.
At the end of the session, Robby answered the question about the punk narrative at the end of RITUAL, Part IV: The Blends (2023). If in general punk was born from rebellion against the system, then punk in Samarinda was born from its fashion style (only). At first, punk in Samarinda was not born as an effort to criticize the system, so this film became an autocriticism of the proliferation of punk children in Samarinda. In addition, this discourse is a critique of the development of IKN near Samarinda, which has no roots. Likewise, there are so many cultures that are just copied and pasted, and have no roots in this city.
Through RITUAL, Part IV: The Blends (2023), we are shown the tangled mess of Samarinda. A city that should coexist with the river, but instead feels overwhelmed by flooding and its solutions. The narrative of the anthropocene and ecological grief is compelling throughout the movie. In the end, all of this must be defeated by the logic of extractive capitalism and bureaucratic capitalism. A discourse that is perhaps also experienced by other cities in other parts of the world. Check out other narratives and discourses in Festival Film Dokumenter 2023, held until December 9, 2023.
Diliput oleh Ahmad Radhitya Alam pada 5 Desember 2023.
