Festival del Cinema d'Indonesia_Le Murate

Since the first time we arrived in Florence, I've been thinking of how to promote Indonesia. Unlike in the Netherlands where number of Indonesians are large, Indonesians are only about 200 to 250 people in Italy. Once I attended a simple Indonesian bazaar organized by a cultural foundation founded by an Indonesian friend who lives in Rotterdam to celebrate Indonesian independence day and to promote Indonesian culture. Two foundations were involved in organizing the whole event which took place in a good size of a hall for about 250 people in Rotterdam. It was a family bazaar with a bit of Dutch 'gezelligheid', the bazaar inspired me to have the same event in Florence. Unlike in Netherlands, however, as I went around and gathered information, I found more obstacles and more challenges to do so.

However, when we came back from our summer holiday last year. I heard from Malina, that she and her husband have organized a festival of Indonesian Cinema in Florence in continuation with the one they held in Pietrasanta. The organization was done by Malina and her husband, an Italian lawyer, the poster was designed by Erlinda, an Indonesian student who studied design in Florence. I was so excited about this event, finally, we had this opportunity to make Indonesia more recognized and pop-up in Italy. Thank you to Jacopo and Malina for their hard-work and the Ambassador of Indonesia for Vatican City for their supports in making the Festival of Indonesian Film a successful event. 

The event took place from 10-12 October, a nights event held at  Le Murate Caffè Letterario Firenze. Located at Piazza delle Murate just a walking distance from the busy piazza Beccharia. A 15th-century complex, Le Murate, was originally a convent which was physically integrated into the city, yet separated from the historic center of Florence. The nuns living in the building were called “le murate”, which literally means ‘walled-in.’ From 1883 to 1985, it was used as the city’s prison. More recently, in 2004, the famous architect Renzo Piano began remodeling the structures making them contemporary, inviting and public, contrary to their original purposes. The complex has been reclaimed and adapted into a beautiful contemporary nucleus with residential and communal spaces, a literary caffè, art exhibition spaces and studio, plus shops and the Robert F. Kennedy human right center. (according to saci-art.com)

With the Ambassador of Indonesia for Vatican city and wife.

The event was a good way to promote Indonesia film, culture, and food to Italians / Italy and as many Indonesians who live outside of Tuscany came to the event it was also a great opportunity for to meet. The Ambassador of Indonesia for Vatican City and some personnel from the Indonesian Embassy in Rome were there too. The food was prepared by a Balinese chef who lives and runs her own successful and well-known Indonesians restaurant in Rimini.  

Some outstanding Indonesian films were chosen to be shown, most of them were unfamiliar to us. A little reminder that perhaps as Indonesians we are a little too much into Hollywood's box-office produced films. Surprisingly, we saw some of the films during this festival and found them beautifully made. It was overall a successful event and many of us were positive to have another upcoming Indonesian events to promote the richness of our culture in the next future.