Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? - What's Up with Love?

Production Company : Miles Productions Year of Production : 2001 Producer : Mira Lesmana and Riri Riza Director : Rudi Soedjarwo Story : Riri Riza, Mira Lesmana, Prima Rusdi Script Development : Prima Rusdi, Rako Prijanto, Mira Lesmana, Riri Riza Screenplay : Jujur Prananto Poetry by : Rako Prijanto Production Design : Adrianto Sinaga Cinematography : Roy Lolang Editor : Dewi S. Alibasah Supervising Editor : Sentot Sahid Songs and Music : Melly Goeslaw and Anton Hoed Starring : Dian Sastrowardoyo and Nicholas Saputra DVD Running Time : 105 minutes Revised English Subtitles : David Hanan

Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? is the Indonesian teen movie that broke box office records in Indonesia in 2001 and has proven hugely popular in screenings overseas as well. Produced by a group of young filmmakers, who are starting to win prizes abroad, it represents a new optimism in Indonesia consonant with the expectations of the post-Suharto reform generation.

A sharply etched yet humorous love story of growing infatuation, ambivalence and near misunderstanding between two idealistic teenagers (Cinta and Rangga) at a high school in Jakarta, this sophisticated and charming film provides an engaging portrait of young people from the middle classes in a major Asian capital city. Cinta (the name means "love") is a member of a teenage girl gang and we first see her in this context. The rather isolated Rangga is a budding poet. When Rangga wins the school poetry competition, Cinta, who also writes poetry and helps edit the student Bulletin Board, wants to interview him, but meets with refusal. Rangga is passionate about the literature of his country, but is alienated from his fellow students due to the break up of his parents' marriage and the political oppression of his father. Cinta sets out to understand this puzzle.

The film deploys the usual conventions of the genre of the teen romance, but deliberately adds in other elements - calculated use of Jakarta teenage slang, allusions to creative and radical figures in literature and cinema in Indonesia, who stand as role models for the young people, and references to continuing political problems in Indonesia. Underneath its glossy surface and its romantic resolution, the film is asking questions about the idealism of young people and suggesting to teenagers that they think harder about the problems posed by their society and by relations between men and women.

Our version of Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? has new, revised English subtitles, especially prepared in view of the demand for this film for use in high schools and universities teaching the Indonesian language and Asian Studies. The DVD is issued with a Study Guide included as a pdf file on the DVD .