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Rushed New Movie on Obama’s Jakarta Boyhood Set to Ignite Religious Debate
Ulma Haryanto | May 12, 2010

Future US president Barack Obama, circled, when he was a student at SDN Menteng School 1. A new film about Obama Future US president Barack Obama, circled, when he was a student at SDN Menteng School 1. A new film about Obama's childhood in the Central Jakarta suburb of Menteng is being rushed into production. It could reinflame controversy about Obama's alleged Muslim roots used by right-wing detractors in an attempt to undermine his bid for the US presidency. (AP Photo/SDN School Menteng 1)
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Roland
3:07pm May 12, 2010

@ tretZ - about which good side are you talking about?

To question the credibility of Pres. Obama? Or to make quick cash with a rushed film and script with the depth of a piece of paper, as all to common for a typical Indonesian sinetron movie? Or about the dubious proof the script writer means to possess that "little Barry prostrated" to God in the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca as well as recited from the Koran?

gus
1:28pm May 12, 2010

Whaaaaat? An icon of pluralism? The facts show that obama has come to divide and pit one against the other via racism and class envy to further his marxist agenda and narcissistic desire to become emperor of the world. (Narcissism: a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy for others.) Forced to do what? Sorry lah, who forced obama to declare his religion? The U.S.A. religious police? Obama wasn't forced to do anything. He chose to lie.

Congratulations, one more big sound bite to propagandize the masses ala cnn and the rest of the mass media.


gsignori
11:59am May 12, 2010

Multivision? again? the destroyer of the indonesia's cinematography?

tretZ
11:01am May 12, 2010

The purpose for this movie is not to make a conflict of "religion" why does people always see something in a negative side?

Can people just think of the good side?

mns_ent
10:53am May 12, 2010

And the real reason to make this movie is...?

Come again...?

Oh, I see. Because it is much easier and faster to make a movie about Obama than to make a comedy about what's going on in the core government of Indonesia.

OK. Got it.

In a move sure to provoke controversy among right-wing groups in the United States, production is set to begin on a new Indonesian movie about Barack Obama’s childhood in Jakarta.

The movie is expected to include scenes of the future US president prostrating to God in the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca, as well as reciting from the Koran.

The film is based on the novel “Obama Anak Menteng” (“Obama the Menteng Kid”), which author Damien Dematra claims to be a true account of “Barry’s” childhood in the Jakarta suburb.

The novel was reportedly written in five days after Damien spent five days interviewing 30 people.

He said he had proof that Obama prayed in the manner of a Muslim and recited the Koran.

Obama, a Christian, was forced to repeatedly deny claims during his ultimately successful presidential election campaign that he had Islamic roots and was educated in a Muslim madrassa.

His African father and Indonesian stepfather were Muslim, though he attended secular and Catholic schools in Jakarta.

Obama spent three years in Jakarta in the late 1960s and early ’70s. The president, who remains deeply popular in Indonesia in stark contrast to his predecessor, George W Bush, was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in part for his efforts to reach out to the Muslim world.

Damien told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday that shooting on the Multivision Plus Pictures film would start this week and the movie would be in cinemas on June 17.

Multivision is known mainly for its television soap operas.

“Tomorrow we’re going to finalize the movie script, including whether we’ll show Obama praying or reciting from the Koran,” Damien said.

He said he had written the screenplay and would co-direct with John DeRantau.

“The filming will take two weeks,” Damien said. “We’ve already cast an American-born child actor as little Barack Obama,” he said. “We’ve also cast actors and actresses from Belgium, Italy and other countries because Obama grew up in a multicultural environment.

“The movie is an account of the people around him, friends, neighbors, teachers, schoolmates.”

Filming will take place in Cimahi, West Java, because “it looks like Menteng Dalam.” “We’ll shoot a few scenes in Jakarta, but not too many,” he added.

He said the movie would run for 100 minutes and be promoted at international film festivals.

“So we’ll have English subtitles,” Damien said, adding he hoped to “rekindle the spirit of pluralism and the power of dreams” through the movie.

“Obama is an icon of pluralism who proved to the world that although he was different, and from the minority, he could aim for the top and beat the majority.”