Randolph Zaini Calls Thugs Identical To Indonesia

Director and screenwriter Randolph Zaini (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Director and scriptwriter Randolph Zaini said that the film Preman is very synonymous with Indonesia and shows a vicious circle of bullying or bullying that occurs in society.

"Those thugs originated during the Dutch colonial era, the VOC appointed several strong people as thugs to guide the other slaves. We can ask ourselves, who is worse off being enslaved? People who are enslaved then suffer, or people who are enslaved to oppress others unconsciously?" said Randolph as quoted from ANTARA, Saturday, December 4.

"That's the vicious circle of bullying. Thugs or bullying can happen in households, offices, businesses, politics, everything," he continued.

Regarding the main character named Sandi who is a deaf person, Randolph said that he tries to represent people who are always marginalized in society.

"As deaf people, their lives are often marginalized. In this film, there are many representations of marginalized friends," he said.

In addition, Randolph added, a character who is deaf was also chosen so that Sandi's character is defined by the actions he does, not his words.

For information, the character Sandi is told to join a gang of thugs named Perkasa for a reason. However, he often disagrees with what his gang is doing so he is always isolated.

Despite the many fighting scenes, Randolph said he didn't want "Thugs" to become an action film featuring martial arts.

"This is a drama film wrapped in action. Thugs are humans, thugs who are not martial arts experts. Their way of fighting is very rude and careless," he said.

In fact, continued Randolph, the weapon that Sandi used was not actually a weapon, but a monkey fist, a strand used by ancient sailors.

"When they (the sailors) were drunk, fighting in bars, they swung it as an improvised weapon. We really embracing the carelessness, carelessness and messy side of a fight," he added.

During the production process of the film, Randolph said the most influential thing was the cohesiveness of the whole team and the acting ability of the cast.

According to Randolph, when on the set, the players insert elements of past trauma to bring their respective characters to life.

"Personal things that they never tell anyone, they pour into the character. The Thug script that I wrote was probably only about 50 percent that reached the screen. The rest, the cast took over the character," said Randolph.