The annual Indonesia International Fantastic Film Festival is back for the fourth time. Following in the footsteps of genre-specific film festivals in Spain, Brussels and Pusan, the festival brings the hottest international releases in horror, thriller, fantasy, science fiction and anime. It is also the only film festival of its kind in Southeast Asia.
There will be 27 feature films this year, in addition to eight Indonesian short films, which will be played at random before the start of the main feature. The festival, known as INAFFF, will be on Nov. 16-21 at the Grand Indonesia Blitz Megaplex in Jakarta, and on Nov. 26-28 at the Paris van Java Blitz Megaplex in Bandung.
Because the festival was previously named Screamfest, festival director Rusli Eddy said that people may get the notion that INAFFF is only about horror. “INAFFF is a fantasy film festival,” Rusly said. “For the past two years, fans of anime have started to come and give color to the festival.” The committee is trying to balance horror films with other genres to attract more filmgoers.
In Jakarta, the festival will kick off with a British science fiction film, “Monsters,” about a failed NASA mission to prove the possibility of alien life in the solar system. Directed by Gareth Edwards, “Monsters” was chosen to open the festival because of its positive critical reviews. According to Rusli, it’s a good example of how a low-budget film has managed to steal the show.
“When it was first shown at Cannes, screenings were always sold out, despite the fact that it’s a low-budget film with home-made special effects,” he said.
INAFFF will also have a variety of Scandinavian films. One is Norway’s horror thriller, “Detour,” inspired by true events in the Swedish forest, and Switzerland’s “Cargo,” a horror/science-fiction film about a weird sound in the cargo of a space station in 2237.
“For the past four years, Scandinavians have produced surprisingly good films in the fantasy genre,” Rusli said.
Torsten Hvas, the scriptwriter for Iceland’s “Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre,” is coming to Indonesia to attend the question-and-answer session after the screening of the film, which is scheduled to play on Nov. 20, at 3 p.m.
The hottest tickets may well be the second and third film adaptations of the popular Millennium Trilogy by Swedish author Stieg Larsson: “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” The latter will close the festival in Jakarta, which means that tickets will be hard to come by because half of the studio has been reserved for those with invitations. The first of the trilogy, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” is already showing at Blitz Megaplex.
Another film to be screened is “Corridor,” which is a mystery/thriller about a cat-and-mouse game between neighbors in an apartment building, and “Psalm 21,” a horror/thriller about a young priest in Stockholm.
Ever since INAFFF started selling tickets last week, the first film to be 90 percent sold out is Thailand’s “Surprise Movie.” According to Rusli, this is because the public thinks that Thais produce the best horror films.
Japan, on the other hand, seems to have a reputation for science fiction. The festival will screen anime adaptation “Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time,” and “Redline,” Japan’s anime science fiction about a destructive car race. And if you want to laugh, there’s “Alien vs. Ninja.”
Unfortunately for Indonesian filmmakers, there was no spot given to them this year. At last week’s press conference, Rusli, along with film producer Sheila Timothy, directors the Mo Brothers and critic Ekky Imanjaya, shared their concerns about the local film industry in 2010, especially for what they refer to as “fantastic” films. They also held a workshop and a short film competition for young filmmakers in Indonesia, especially for films of this genre.
According to Sheila, horror is a strong genre in the Asia Pacific. Japan and Korea have released popular horror films, such as “The Ring” trilogy and “Ju On.” But she also pointed out that the number of viewers for local films is decreasing.
“We have plenty of Indonesian horror films, but since they’re not well-executed, they don’t attract more than a million viewers,” Sheila said.
Timo, from the Mo Brothers, added that horror is a part of Indonesian culture. “Horror is easy to develop in Indonesia, so it would be a pity if we’re stuck with films about pocong [white-shrouded corpses], virgins and kuntilanak [female ghosts] — I am honestly sick of such movies,” he said.
Rusli said INAFFF aims to also give a boost to good local horror films. “Badly produced horror films are a hidden danger. There was not a single Indonesian movie that reached box office success this year, which may hinder film directors in finding investors and create good movies,” he said.
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