Samsara
Film
Directed by Garin Nugroho
Running time: 80 minutes
Bali, circa 1932. Since childhood, Sinta and Darta were close, though they came from two opposite classes. Sinta was born in a wealthy family of a noble Balinese father and American mother, while Darta is a child from a poor bamboo craftsman family. They came across each other because, since being a kid, Darta has worked in Sinta’s family household as an offering maker. In their twenties, their friendship becomes intimate and they fall in love with each other. However, after Darta tries to propose to Sinta and gets rejected by her parents, Darta wanders aimlessly while Sinta falls into deep sadness of losing. In his aimless journey, Darta finds a shaman who tells him about a sacrificial Monkey King ritual which could grant him fortune in exchange for sacrificing his future child to the Monkey King. Samsara is described as a “cine-concert” that draws from German black-and-white films from the 1920s as well as wayang kulit (traditional Indonesian shadow puppetry).
