The chick-flick that shines a light on Indonesia’s progress

Indonesian cinema is undergoing a quiet renaissance. In the first eight months of 2016, eight films have sold well over a million tickets, compared to 2015 when only three movies were as successful.

As shoots clog the city’s streets and red-carpet premieres draw the fans, Jakarta has turned into Jollywood.

The trailblazer for this phenomenon is undisputedly the two-parter Ada Apa Dengan Cinta (“What’s Up with Cinta?”; dubbed AADC1 and 2, released in 2002 and 2016).

Indeed, the two romantic comedies (with their warm, Notting Hill a la Simon Curtis ethos) – helmed by the producer and director team of Riri Riza and Mira Lesmana – have become iconic and interlinked with Indonesia’s identity post-Reformasi, the years after it freed itself from the strongman leadership of former president Suharto. Each outing has been something of a national event, a zeitgeist moment, as the republic pauses to reflect both on the state of the nation as well as the star-crossed lovers – Cinta played by Dian Sastrowardoyo, an actress with the luminous beauty of a Kate Winslet and Rangga, the craggily handsome male played by Nicholas Saputra.

Lesmana said: “The local film industry was in a coma for much of the 1990s. At that time, everything to do with films required permits and pre-censorship. [The former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid] Gus Dur changed all that and film was freed.”