UPCOMING | "Titik Nol", Fusing Theatre With Film [Updated]

“Titik Nol” is an upcoming project that strives to combine theatre with film, and is directed by Jakarta-based filmmaker Nicholas Yudifar and Singapore-based, Indonesian playwright Agnes Christina. You may remember the Jakarta-born Agnes, who holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from the National University of Singapore, as the producer of the fourth Indonesian Arts Festival, held in 2010. Earlier this year, Agnes and Nicholas collaborated in the local theater company Teater Ekamatra‘s “Bersendaloka: Potret”, in which Nicholas created a video installation to accompany the Agnes-directed play.

“Titik Nol” started out as a short film done by Nicholas in 2010. It tells a story about a boy looking for his father, who had gone missing. The boy went to the most extreme point in the Indonesian archipelago, to find an assurance that his father was indeed no longer there. Intrigued by the story about loss and acceptance, Agnes further developed the story into a full-length play about love and loss, with beautiful and historic Aceh as the background.

Emanorwatty Saleh as Siti

The synopsis is as follows:

Titik Nol tells stories about Siti, Sukran and eventually Sofyan.

Siti, a Malaysian Moslem woman and Sukran, an Acehnese boy, have a common link: Sofyan. Sofyan, is Siti’s love interest and Sukran calls him “Bapak”. But nobody knows if he is Sukran’s father. And nobody really knows if Siti and Sofyan are in any relationship.

Sofyan’s life is pretty much affected by the political situation in Aceh. The existence of the Free Aceh Movement and its tension with the Indonesian government affects all Acehneses’ lives. But how does this affect Siti’s life, a woman who lives in Malaysia? When the Aceh tsunami occurred and Sofyan went missing, their lives became even more complicated and they were left with questions.

When someone is missing, we keep hoping that he will come back, but how long will we wait? In the end we would want a word of assurance, just to let us know that he is really gone. And to find an assurance that someone has really left our lives is a very painful thing.

In this project, Nicholas will be rehearsing with an Indonesian actor in Jakarta, while Agnes will be rehearsing with a Singaporean actor in Singapore. There will be a weeklong combined rehearsal to synchronize the actors, presenting the directors with yet another challenge to have two actors in different countries, but act in one performance piece.

On the collaboration:

In both film and theatrical play, there is a common root: storytelling. Verbal storytelling has been practiced in the eastern culture for the purpose of passing down historical events. The act of a storyteller telling a story about a character from the third point of view is indeed a very unique practice as it allows the listener to illustrate the story in his own mind and let his imagination run wild. However, this practice is very rarely done nowadays, except in storytelling sessions for children. The development of theatrical play and film has reduced the basic storytelling practice that was popular in the past. Images and characterization in both film and theatrical play have spoon-fed the audience; now, the audience is presented by a ready-to-consume presentation of a story. Through Titik Nol, we are presenting the basic form of storytelling through third point of view, with a little adjustment. We are experimenting with storytelling, film and theatrical play, combining them together to give the audience a totally new experience.