Documentary Film "Persantren" Karya Saluddin Siregar Shows In Online Cinema May 24

Shalahuddin Siregar (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The film 'Pesantren' will premiere in Online Cinemas starting May 24, 2023.

This film is the work of Shalahuddin Siregar, an Indonesian director who is known for his documentaries.

According to its official broadcast on Sunday, the reason the director worked on this film has something to do with the film 'Negeri Under Mist' which he released in 2011. The film tells the story of the life of the farmer community in Genikan Village, which is at the foot of Mount Merbabu.

One of the characters in my first long documentary 'Negeri under Mist' was a 12-year-old child named Arifin who wanted to enter SMP Negeri but his parents were too poor to pay an expensive registration fee. Finally they sent Arifin to the pesantren," said Udin, Shalahuddin Siregar's nickname, quoting Antara.

When this film was released, there were those who regretted the decision to send Arifin to the pesantren because they thought he would be educated to be a terrorist. Islamic boarding school is also often accused of not developing. I am disturbed by this stigma, but even though I am Muslim, I do not have enough knowledge of pesantren. That's why I made this film, to find out what life is like in pesantren," he added.

For the film 'Pesantren', Udin chose the Pondok Kebon Jambu Islamic boarding school in Cirebon, which is a traditional pesantren in Indonesia, but special because it is led by women. What is rarely found is a pesantren with male and female students, led by women.

This film also received a warm welcome and was selected in the XXI Asianica Film Festival 2020 and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2019. This film has also aired at the Madani International Film Festival and was broadcast at The University of British Columbia in March 2022.

The film 'Pesantren' itself is a documentary that invites viewers to dive into the lives of the residents of Pondok Kebon Jambu Al-Islamy, one of the largest traditional Islamic boarding schools in Cirebon. The students at this pesantren are educated to think critically, support gender equality, and respect diversity.

The depiction that men can also become people who are full of feelings, or women are able to become leaders, makes this film successfully display life in pesantren from different perspectives. Many of the good values taught, that Islam is good, peaceful, cool, moderate, tolerant and embracing. The figure in the film can be a new hope for Indonesia.