Lisa Siregar – The new movie "Sang Penari" ("The Dancer") is only the third Indonesian film to chronicle one of the country's most violent, unspoken periods: the anti-communist purge that heralded the start of the New Order era.

The movie – based on the novel "Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk" by Ahmad Tohari – tells a love story in the 1960s that unfolds during the 30 September Movement, which led to the fall of former President Sukarno and the killings of hundreds of thousands of Indonesians.

"I like that this film visualizes what the poor were going through, and it shows the killings I witnessed at the time but couldn't write about in my novel," Ahmad said.

"Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk" was first published in the 1980s, when Suharto's anti-communist New Order regime was still in power. "Had I written about the killings, I probably would have been shot by Suharto," Ahmad said.

Following a three-year absence after his first feature film, "Garuda di Dadaku" ("Garuda on My Chest"), Yogyakarta-born director Ifa Isfansyah has harnessed all his creative energy for "Sang Penari." "I know I have to represent my generation, so this film takes the perspective of the Millennial generation," Ifa said.

Other films about this time period include the late Arifin C. Noer's "G30S/PKI" from 1984 and Riri Riza's "Gie" from 2005, about the life of activist Soe Hok Gie.

"Sang Penari" describes the love story of Srintil (Prisia Nasution) and Rasus (Nyoman Oka Antara), and it takes place in the poor Central Java village of Dukuh Paruk.

Young Srintil has a passion for dance and wants to become a ronggeng, a traditional dancer who plays an important role in Dukuh Paruk rituals, and who villagers believe must be born, not made.

Srintil's parents, meanwhile, unknowingly sell poisonous tempeh to the Dukuh Paruk villagers, including the established ronggeng, who dies from the food along with Srintil's parents and other community members.

Twelve years later, a magic man (Slamet Rahardjo) declares Srintil a gifted ronggeng, though the job is not quite what she expected. If she wants to officially become the community ronggeng, she must be willing to please any man who offers the highest bid to spend a night with her – a tradition known as buka kelambu (opening the veil).

For Srintil, the tradition is an opportunity to devote herself to the village and make up for the tragic accident involving her parents. But for her longtime lover, Rasus, buka kelambu is hard to stomach; he wants Srintil for himself.

Torn between guilt, devotion, love and her passion for dance, Srintil decides to proceed with the tradition and become a ronggeng, prompting a broken-hearted Rasus to join the Army. In the service Rasus meets a sergeant named Binsar (Tio Pakusadewo), who teaches him to read and wins his loyalty.

Beyond the love story, the movie's larger narrative focuses on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), whose members are spreading their ideology.

Bakar (Lukman Sardi), the Communist Party's representative for Dukuh Paruk, encourages the villagers to demand their land rights and convinces them that the party understands agrarian causes. The villagers, who lack knowledge of national political conflicts, heed his call and align themselves with the PKI.

But when the 30 September Movement sweeps across the country, their allegiance works against them, and they are slaughtered by Indonesian soldiers on a mission to purge the country of communists.

"Sang Penari" features regular Indonesians who are simply struggling to survive their day-to-day lives, in keeping with Ahmad's novel about normal people who are naive about the country's complex political situation.

Screenwriter Salman Aristo said he went through 12 drafts for "Sang Penari" before settling on a plot, a process that took about two years of research and discussions.

"This is a rural point of view about the 30 September Movement, and I had to make a few changes from the book to support this perspective," Salman said.

"This novel is a brave one," he added. " It is important not only for Indonesian literature, but also for our history."

Indonesian history is full of layers, he said, including some that remain unexplored today.

Ifa, the director, said making the film was an eye-opening process. Born in 1979, nearly a decade after the tragedy, he said he was more familiar with the occupation of the House of Representatives in 1999 than the mass killings of the 1960s.

For many people born during the New Order, the mass killings took on the status of myth, as they were typically left out of the country's history books.

Ifa said he also struggled to adapt a 1960s love story for a contemporary audience. "I had to include kissing scenes, even though, as Slamet [Rahardjo] told me, young people in the 1960s didn't kiss," he said.

Also working on the film was veteran cinematographer Yadi Sugandi, as well as a team that worked with Ifa on his first feature film, including producer Shanty Harmayn, screenwriter Salman Aristo and composers Aksan Sjuman and Titi Sjuman.

"Sang Penari" opens in theaters on Thursday and Shanty is confident the movie will end up selling at least a million tickets.

The film will be available with English subtitles during screenings at Plaza Senayan.