Indonesian Classic Movie 'Tiga Dara' Restored After 59 Years, to Be Released in August
Jakarta. After 17 months of being in the restoration process, the Indonesian classic movie "Tiga Dara" which was first released in 1957 at the Venice Film Festival, is finally ready to hit theaters once again on Aug 11.
The restoration is a private initiative by Jakarta-based SA Films, who took over the project after it was postponed indefinitely by the EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam, due to the financial crisis that hit Europe a few years ago.
The physical restoration and post-scanning synchronization were done at the L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy, in 2015, involving Indonesian filmmakers Lintang Gitomartoyo and Lisabona Rahman. Thereafter, the movie was digitally restored and remastered to crystal clear 4k resolution by Render Digital Indonesia, making it the first Indonesian movie to be produced in 4k resolution.
"Tiga Dara" is a film by Usmar Ismail, who is widely regarded as the father of Indonesian film for being the first Indonesian to direct a movie, starring Chitra Dewi, Mieke Wijaya, Indriati Iskak, Rendra Karno, Fifi Young and Hassan Sanusi.
Speaking at a private screening of "Tiga Dara" at Institut Francais d'Indonesie in Jakarta on Monday (18/07), Yoki Soufyan from SA Films said the classic movie was physically damaged and the image acquisition process had to be repeated multiple times to achieve the best result.
Paola Ferrari from the film repair department at the L'Immagine Ritrovata said the physical copy suffered from a vinegar syndrome, and she had to put it in the cleaning machine twice or three times. After its theatrical release in Indonesia, the copy was kept at Sinematek Indonesia in Kuningan, Jakarta, which regularly accepts volunteers to help clean their library. They have approximately 1000 titles and 3000 copies of Indonesian classic movies at their library.
Taufiq Marhaban from SA Films said the restoration process cost over 260,000 euros ($285,174).
"According to the Indonesian law of intellectual property rights, any movie that is older than 50 years automatically becomes [part of] the public domain. However, we did come to Usmar's family and asked for permission to work together. We are only holding the distribution rights," Taufiq said.
"Tiga Dara" will be shown in 10 screens in Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang, Depok and Bekasi, and will slowly be released across Indonesia in Java, Sulawesi, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua. Taufiq said SA Films is also currently in talks with a Malaysian company to distribute the movie in Malaysia.
"It is a matter of both preserving history and being commercially successful. That's why we need to appeal to the millennials, people aged 15 - 25, and we are making a movie that is inspired by "Tiga Dara," he said.
SA Films also produced "Ini Kisah Tiga Dara" by Nia Dinata, a remake of the classic that is set to open in theaters in September. Earlier this month, a concert was held in Plaza Indonesia, Jakarta, to launch the soundtrack for the remake. A bigger concert to celebrate 60 years of "Tiga Dara" will be also held on Aug 3.
"If the classic movie was about a male [director] telling stories about three women, this time we give a chance for a female director to tell her story about women," he said.
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