Garin Nugroho 

Indonesia

His last movie, And The Moon Dances..., was a highly symbolic piece of work that, even to Asian audiences, spoke of an opulent exoticism. The movie all but abandoned plot to use symbolic scenes that – to the mind of some critics – represented the repressiveness of Suharto's rule. Others feel that the symbolism was more personal, an expression of repressed love between the characters.

Leaf  is set in the Indonesian city of  Yogyakarta, the one-time Royal capital (today the capital is Jakarta) and still the cultural centre of the island of Java. 

The story focuses on three street kids who survive by doing petty jobs. They take drugs and hang out, but still feel that they can make a go of things and escape a life of poverty. Most of their problems are the result of neglect and abuse by their mothers. 

For consolation, they turn to a 35-year-old woman called Asih, a street seller who looks after them. Each night they fight over who will have Asih's leaf pillow. But in spite of their hopes, their destiny is to be nothing but tragic.

The film was produced by Indonesian actress Christine Hakim, who also stars in the film as Asih. Production was actually complete back in October 1997, but the dramatic fall of the Indonesian rupiah held up post-production, which was scheduled to take place in Australia.

Funding comes from a number of sources, including the Hubert Bals Fund, Japan's NHK, and RCTI television. A longer version of Leaf will also play on TV in three 48-minute segments. 

The documentary foundation of Leaf – the stories are based in fact – is not without precedence in Nugroho's work. Both his second film, Letter To Angel, and And The Moon Dances... included some documentary footage. Nugroho used to be a lawyer. Before the rupiah crash he managed to part-fund his films by shooting advertisements – as Indonesia's  film industry declined, its TV sector expanded.  Previous films have seen him draw the crew from film students. Sadly, his films have not been shown in Indonesia, where some critics have proposed that they are too arty for local tastes.

"I have three goals when I make a film: expressing myself, expressing my culture, and expressing my dreams," Nugroho told Cinemaya magazine. 
Richard James Havis