Bersama Membangun Negeri (2023) — Grassroots Visits and Staged Tears
- Arina Chuuriyyah Herawati
- Ailsa Luthfia Indrasari Laksana Putri
Deo Mahameru membangun cerita ini lewat kegagalan demi kegagalan yang semakin lama semakin tidak masuk akal. Satinah tidak bisa menangis sesuai keinginan Heni, yaitu “menangis senatural mungkin”. Namun Satinah tak bisa melakukannya. Kadang ia terlalu emosional, kadang ia terlalu pelan. Pengadaan audisi kepada ibu-ibu lain pun tak membuahkan hasil yang sepadan. Heni bahkan menunjukkan filter kamera kepada warga agar ekspresi mereka bisa disesuaikan sebelum direkam, dan warga itu justru kagum, tidak curiga. Ada sesuatu yang lucu sekaligus menyedihkan dari adegan itu, tawa yang langsung terasa berat di dada.
Everything then explodes in front of Satinah’s husband’s grave. With a green screen standing behind her, Heni asks Satinah to imagine something no grieving person should ever be asked to imagine. Satinah does not cry. She grabs Heni by the hair instead. The camera slows down, and it feels like finally being able to exhale after holding your breath for far too long. Elly Lutan spends most of the film expressing Satinah through silence, which is exactly why her small outburst near the end feels like a victory far greater than its size.
The film closes with Satinah burning the campaign papers. There is no swelling music, no final line trying to sound profound. Just fire, and someone who has decided she no longer wants to be used as a tool. Sometimes the simplest endings are the hardest to forget.
Only twelve minutes long, yet difficult to simply brush aside, because we know videos like the one Heni is making truly exist, and perhaps we have watched them ourselves without ever questioning what happened behind the scenes.
by Arina Chuuriyyah Herawati
Editor Ailsa Luthfia Indrasari Laksana Putri
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