Islamic romance storms Indonesian box office
Updated 3 hours 30 minutes ago
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Indonesia is currently experiencing a movie phenomenon not seen since the theatre-filled days of Titanic, with locally-written and produced “Ayat-Ayat Cinta” set to eclipse the box office any day now, and in under a month.
Presenter: Adam Connors
Speakers: Dr Ariel Heryanto, Indonesia program convenor of the University of Melbourne; Amrih Widodo, Southeast Asia Centre of Australia National University; Professor Barbara Hatley, foundation professor of Indonesian at University of Tasmania.
CONNORS: The novel Ayat-Ayat Cinta, known as The Love Verses in English, was written by Habiburrahman El Shirazy in 2004.
It is a huge hit, having been reprinted 37 times with more than three quarters of a million copies in print.
Now, a movie of the same name by director Hanung Bramantyo is literally flooding the theatres with the nation’s youth and politicians alike.
Quite peculiar for any film, this modern Muslim romance has received the blessing of the conservative Islamist PKS party - whose chairman reportedly met its cast - and the country’s vice president.
But this isn’t just any film…
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