http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3194&Itemid=202
Indonesia's Blank Screens
Written by Our Correspondent Monday, 16 May 2011
Not in Indonesia, you don't
A mystery tax has nearly dried up the supply of foreign films in the country
The western movies showing in Jakarta last weekend included My Sassy Girl,
released in 2008, New Daughter and Blood Creek, both released in 2009, and
Source Code, released last April.
"There are no new Hollywood films showing in Indonesia because of a boycott by
distributors regarding a new tax. This was supposed to be 'resolved' already
but it hasn't been," wrote Chris Holm, a Jakarta-based moviegoer, on Facebook.
"The idiot official responsible can't be contacted, of course. Why? Because he
is with a delegation attending f***ing Cannes."
"He" is Syamsul Lussa, the Director of Films at the Culture and Tourism
Ministry. France's Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 11 to May 22 is
perhaps the world's most prestigious film festival. One imagines he will be
watching many western films.
The US Motion Picture Association stopped exporting films to Indonesia on Feb.
1 over a new royalty tax that the Indonesian Cinema Companies Union said would
have a "significant detrimental impact on the cost of bringing a film into
Indonesia. On Feb. 17, the union imposed a boycott of western films. The
government, according to local media, promised a resolution by the end of March
but the impasse continues.
A blog started by an outraged moviegoer named Marvel Sutantio and called
Indonesian Movie Crisis, ("How the Indonesian movie industry was brought down
by greedy tax & customs officials"), charged that "These guys in the
Directorate General of Customs and Excise made up a greedy rule that threatens
to destroy the Indonesian movie industry. Not just for imported films, but for
the national movie industry too.
"My parents went through the 1960s hell where American movies were boycotted,
and only sucky Indonesian movies remain. Well I don't want history to repeat
itself; I'm doing what I can to prevent that. My only hope is the news that
I've translated could notify the international world about this crisis. This
whole tragedy and crisis is personal, not just for me, but for the thousands of
21 Cineplex and Blitzmegaplex's employees, and their families too. So hear ye,
hear ye, I got a story to tell."
Djonny Sjafruddin, the head of the Indonesian Cinema Companies Union (GPBSI),
said the foreign film distribution boycott in the country has cut the motion
picture industry's income by 60 percent.
"Since the Motion Picture Association stopped exporting their films to
Indonesia, we, the cinema industry, have begun feeling the effect, especially
in small towns such as in Central Java," Sjafruddin said. In an attempt to
cope, the industry has been running second-class foreign films and previously
run movies.
In some ways, the situation is reminiscent of other government decisions that
are so opaque that nobody can figure them out. In 2007, imported liquor
suddenly vanished from the country, either because the government was
attempting to clamp down on the booze black market, which was estimated at 75
percent of the total liquor brought into the country, or to stop companies from
bribing their way through customs, or to placate Muslim conservatives, who
frown on drinking alcohol, or for other unexplained reasons, possibly because
military officials controlled the liquor trade.
A single legal importer was allowed to bring liquor into the country. But for
months the comp-any attempted to get the government to raise the quota to meet
demand that was four times higher than the legal limit. Then the situation was
said to be solved, and then it wasn't solved. It was possible to buy liquor in
certain places, and in certain places it wasn't. The situation is somewhat
better now but prices remain absurdly high by regional standards and there are
still occasional shortages for no apparent reason.
Similar mystery surrounds the movie situation.
"The tax-scheme controversy is slowly killing the Indonesian cinema industry,
while the government wants to add more screens across the nation," Sjafruddin
said. "But if there is no film, what will be screened in the new screens?
Indonesian films have not really been able to attract the market."
"Maybe 15 to 20 percent of Indonesian films can attract audiences," he said.
"Does the audience really want to watch films with the same ghost concept all
the time? I guess not, because the audiences are not stupid."
Dian Sunardi, the head of marketing at BlitzMegaplex cinemas, one of two major
cinema chains in the country, testified to the decreased drawing power of the
films currently on offer.
"We still receive some film stock from major studios, including from Hollywood
through other distributors," Dian said. "However, the number of visitors has
dropped 15 percent to 20 percent compared with last year."
Even the Jakarta administration is feeling the impact.
"So far, cinemas have contributed 20 percent of the Rp81 billion (US$9.5
million) in entertainment tax collected for the first quarter of the year,"
said Iwan Setiawandi, the head of the Jakarta Tax Office. "But in previous
years, cinemas have contributed as much as 40 percent to 50 percent of the Rp
350 billion entertainment tax collected annually in Jakarta."
Industry representatives and moviegoers like Herda Aprillia, a member of the
Indo Harry Potter online fan community, can only hope the matter is resolved
soon. "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2" - the last installment in
the hugely popular series - is due to be released in July.
"I am actually staunchly against pirated films. But what else can you do? I am
not going to wait until the DVD is [officially] released or fly to Singapore
only to watch the film," Herda said.
With reporting from the Jakarta Globe
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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