Film Controversy Due To Poster And Title

JAKARTA - Social media, especially X, is busy with the controversy over the appearance of a horror genre film entitled Kiblat which was originally scheduled to air this year. However, the plan to screen a film that appears with its trilers is questioned by the public.

A number of parties reject the movie singer because he is considered to have insulted certain religious symbols. They refused to screen the film in public cinemas. Even MUI was eventually banned from showing it in theaters because the poster and the title of the film were considered provoking. The horror film, directed by Bobby Prasetyo, is also considered to have demeaned Islam.

The Kiblat film, starring a number of artists such as Arbani Yasiz, Yasmin Napper, Youtube Ria Ricis, Hana Saraswati, and Dennis Adhiswara, had to be postponed. One of the comments on social media was revealed by Ustadz Hilmi Firdausi through uploads on the X account @hilmi28, he urged that horror films that associate the worship of Muslims should be stopped. According to him, the horror film Kiblat, which appears with brochures like that, does not educate many people. Apart from not educating, the Kiblat film actually makes people afraid to do prayer.

The caretaker of the Tebuireng Islamic Boarding School, Jombang KH Abdul Hakim Mahfudz also commented on the film as a film that was less educational, "I think this horror film is less than an educational perspective. Children must master and understand science, so they can choose films that have educational missions," suggested KH Abdul Hakim Mahfudz, who is usually called Gus Kikin, as quoted by Antara, Thursday, March 28.

He considered that this film prioritized commercial interests and ignored the education side. He also commented on the making of a Kiblat film poster, which contained a picture of a person who was beaten but his face was up. Gus Kikin admitted that he did not understand what the poster meant. We don't know what the basis is for making that scene. Maybe joking or what. But if it is really harassing, it must be dealt with," he said.

The excitement made the production house Leo Pictures have to go to MUI to clarify, on March 27, 2024. Leo Pictures finally admitted that the poster and the title were not right, they promised to change and correct it again.

"Assalamu 'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh, After the commotion in the last few days, we also carried out tabayyun with the Indonesian Ulema Council. MUI is very humble in providing many positive suggestions to our work," said Agung Saputra as the producer of the film, after a meeting with MUI some time ago.

Agung argued that the contents of their films were of good value for the community. However, their titles and posters made the public misunderstood. "Given that the content of this film is actually a good hierarchy for the community, but the posters and titles create misunderstandings with various parties," he said.

The chairman of the MUI for Da'wah and Ukhuwah, KH Cholil Nafis, on one occasion an interview on television said that seeing the shapes and posters had caused misunderstandings. For this reason, Mui had banned its broadcast. The film cannot be shown because it is considered a black campaign for Islam.

Cholil Nafis further explained that even though he had not watched the film, with the title and poster depicting people prostration facing up, it clearly hurt Muslims. "That's a form of disrespectfulness. Apart from the word Qibla, it leads to the direction of praying for Muslims, not other understandings. I said the content and the title did not meet," he said.

Meanwhile, in terms of content, he admitted that he was supportive. Then he also explained that there was a hierarchy about religion, so there was a mystical village, a mejik and then there was a child who wanted to bring goodness with the call to prayer at that place. "So the scenario we read is quite good, so our protests and objections are only from the aspect of the title and poster we didn't meet," he said in the dialogue. "The mistake in making posters and titles has already admitted them to me." he added.

LSF Talks About Qibla

The film 'Kiblat' tells the story of Ainun played by Yasmine Napper who has to go to the village where his father lives named Bumi Suwung. Ainul's father is known to be respected by the villagers. As far as Ainun, his father Abah Mulya is a very idolized cleric. One day his father reportedly died of a mysterious cause of death, because of that Ainun felt the need to visit the village where his father lived.

Ainun accompanied by his friend Rini, played by Ria Ricis, followed him to his father's village. But when they got there, they actually felt and saw anomalies, especially about the religious teachings brought by his father. The people there seemed mystical and odd. They also experienced a lot of odd and mysterious things, including the village where the call to prayer never sounded and the direction of the Qibla that could change.

It was slowly revealed that irregularities about his father's teaching turned out to be heretical teachings and deviated from Islamic teachings in general. He also experienced various mystical events and found various facts that he had never thought of before, after studying the condition he and 3 teenagers there tried to improve the situation. Responding to the excitement of the film by Bobby Prasetyo, who was the controversial Deputy Chair of the LSF, Ervan Ismail, admitted that he had checked the film. Now in the review stage. However, he admits that the process at the LSF is only partially complete, because his party has received the film, but his party has provided records of the improvements.

Ervan explained that in this Democracy era, we can have a dialogue, we can speak out anywhere that is roughly an obstacle and has the potential to violate regulations. Or sensitive things in society that may cause protests. "We don't have the potential to restrict freedom of expression. To the producer of this film, we have given notes," he said.

However, according to Ervan, cinematically the film is not yet complete. Indeed, in terms of the incomplete film given to him, we have not been able to see whether it can be called an excessive violent scene, because the data is not complete. Regarding the prayer scene there were 4 times the prayer scene, we have checked, the prayer movement, prayer prayers, surah which was read out.

He guaranteed that there was no movement that was considered harassing, or praying which was described as playing games. At the end of the story, he wanted to describe that there were people who fought to free the village from guilt. Because in the village there was no call to prayer and no one prayed and it wanted to be released by 3 people who came to the village

The number of criticisms and protests against the emergence of the Kiblat film, even though the film is still in the form of a film trailer released on March 21, 2021. The public considers the film inappropriate to be shown because it can make a person afraid to pray. Some responses are also considered by some people in cyberspace regarding the impression of the film