The Photograph

It was the second screening of The Photograph by Nan T. Achnas at the 13th IFFK, and from the long queue of audience and the full house, one could make out that a lot of expectations were in the air.
This Indonesian film is about a bar singer, Sita, who comes to live with a photographer, Mr. Johan. In order to support her sick grandmother and a daughter, Sita is forced into prostitution. Mr. Johan is at the fag end of his life and has three wishes to fulfill before his death. Both help each other and the story proceeds with their growing understanding of each other. This relationship between two helpless people gives a new dimension to Sita’s life and a fulfilling end to that of Johan.
The movie works its way through different shades of human emotions in a poignant manner: the helplessness of a mother who is forced into a profession not of her choice, and the pain that she undergoes, both driven by the love for her daughter. This split within her – what she wants to be and what she is – is embodied in her conversations with her mirror image during moments of pain and inner turmoil.
Through her relationship with the photographer she gradually comes to learn what it is to live in reality, or in other words, she realizes the difference between the image and the real. While Mr. Johan’s last wishes are fulfilled, she ends up learning his profession and becoming his successor, as it were. The photographer on his part holds a surprise that is revealed at the end, which turns out to be a story of selfishness and tragedy.
In other words, The Photograph is about Sita’s journey from the confusion of the mirror image to the specificity of the photographic image. In the end we find a blank wall with the photograph of her and her teacher on it, a wall which will be filled with the photographs she will take in the future.

Rohini Kumar© FIPRESCI 2008