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.
Not exactly a blockbuster weekend. "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.
Behind this odd situation is an opaque decision not unlike many opaque decisions in Indonesia. No one seems to know where it came from, why it was made or whether it has been resolved. The end result is presumably of benefit to a few officials somewhere while movie fans, the movie industry and employees of the cinemas themselves suffer.
The US Motion Picture Association stopped exporting films to Indonesia on Feb. 1 over a new royalty tax that the Indonesian Cinema Companies Union (GPBSI) said would have a "significant detrimental impact on the cost of bringing a film into Indonesia. The union says revenues are down 60 percent as a result. The government promised a resolution by the end of March but the impasse continues.
The blog Indonesian Movie Crisis started by an outraged moviegoer named Marvel Sutantio howls that the movie business "was brought down by greedy tax & customs officials," That seems about right. "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," writes Sutantio.
"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 GPBSI, was quoted in the Jakarta Globe saying, "Since the Motion Picture Association stopped exporting their films to Indonesia, we, the cinema industry, have begun feeling the effect, especially in small towns." 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 nobody can figure out. Restrictions on beef imports, limits on foreign express courier services, cabbotage rules that restrict shipping to Indonesian flag carriers – these are all examples of decisions taken by officials or lawmakers that disrupt a narrow sector of the economy apparently to serve a special interest group.
A few years ago, imported liquor suddenly vanished from the country, either because the government was attempting to clamp down on the 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. No one really knows.
A single legal importer was allowed to bring liquor into the country. But for months the company attempted to get the government to raise the quota to meet demand that was four times higher than the legal limit. The tourist and entertainment industry suffered for months. 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."
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 told the Jakarta Globe. "However, the number of visitors has dropped 15 percent to 20 percent compared with last year." The Jakarta administration also says that the city is suffering because of a steep drop in the entertainment tax usually accounted for by cinema houses.
Meanwhile, there was a big raid last week on pirated DVDs at the Plaza Semanggi shopping mall. But everyone in Jakarta knows that is pretty much for show and anyway all the other pirate DVD centers were operating as usual. Besides, where else are you going to see a current release Hollywood movie?