Director: Garin Nugroho
Writer: Amantorno
Cast: Sakurta Ginting, Putri Mulia
Cast: Shiruiti Menon, Suhasini V. Nair, Syam Seethal

Of Love and Eggs was the only film from Indonesia to be screened at this year's London Film Festival. the films director, Garin Nugroho, is the most celebrated Indonesian film-maker of his generation, despite having attracted a predominately art-house and student following in his own country. His features have won awards all over the world, from Berlin to Tokyo.

With the exception of Daun Di Atas Bantal (Leaf on a Pillow) which starred well-known Indonesian actress Christine Hakim, none of Garin's films have been commercially successful in Indonesia. Local audiences don't “get” them; and so he relies on the international art-house circuit to get exposure and to recoup the cost of making them.

Of Love and Eggs is a surprising departure from neo-realism for a director who once made a film (2000’s Unconcealed Poetry) about the Suharto-sanctioned massacre of suspected Communist suspects in a prison in Acheh. Made in the style of the big studio comedies of Indonesian cinema’s 1950s heyday, Of Love and Eggs was filmed entirely on a set built to resemble a marketplace in a poor working class neighbourhood in Jakarta. The plot centres on a small mosque without a dome and the lives of the people who live in its shadow-- as played by a fantastic ensemble cast.

In an interview with an Indonesian film journal, Garin said that Of Love and Eggs is his most communicative film. For all the surface comedy, there is a bittersweet pall hanging over the small lives of the characters. The multilayered story takes place in the last few days just before Eid Al-Fitr, the holy Muslim festival which marks the end of Ramadan (and is called Idul Fitri in Indonesia). Each sub-plot revolves around one theme, ‘rindu', or longing.

The film begins with a sing-song commentary by a little girl with a hare-lip and a lisp, playing the role of the chorus in ancient Greek theatre: speaking for the masses and bringing us up to date with the action. She appears again in the middle and at the end of the film; a post-modern touch. Garin made Of Love and Eggs as a response to a Muslim cleric's call to ban comedy for teenagers. He wanted to produce a censor-proof film that contained an anti-fundamentalist polemic beneath the benign narrative; in which the place of Islam in the lives of these poor, simple people reflects various longings: for a missing mother, for a brother who has not visited in months, for a cupola for the humble mosque, and for first love--as well as the longing for new homes to replace those demolished by government-sanctioned clean-ups of slum areas in the capital.

Pak Bagja is a mild-mannered, corpulent religious teacher in a mosque without a cupola. He has a young student called Rindu (which means “longing” in Indonesian) who insists on drawing pictures of mosques without cupolas--because its absence reminds her of her brother, a cupola-maker, whom she hasn't seen since their home was demolished by the government. Another student, Asih, missing her mother - who left home and abandoned the family after being mistreated by Asih's repentant father - refuses to let anyone touch her prayer mat. Bimo is a young boy who lives with his elder brother (an egg-seller), and is secretly enamoured of Cantik: a young lady who works in an office and rents a room near the mosque. Cantik is adopted as a surrogate mother by Bimo, who makes her noodles with eggs stolen from his brother.

These various problems are resolved when someone donates a beautiful silver cupola to the impoverished mosque. Its arrival heralds much festivity and happiness and is filmed in the manner of a fairytale ending. Despite this neat denouement, however, you are left with the feeling that a million other short stories like these are played out every day amongst the poor and desperate in Indonesia.