KADO HARI JADI - PRESS KIT

houseofwaves productions Apartemen Permata Senayan No. 308, Jl. Palmerah Selatan 20 – 21 A, Jakarta Selatan 10270

T: +6221 5364018, +62857 10313956 – F: +6221 5364018 – E: [email protected]

Kado Hari Jadi (The Anniversary Gift)

Press Kit



Synopsis

A young man wakes up chained to metal chair in a room painted a sickening shade of pink and

illuminated by a single blinding block of neon lights placed at his right. A razorblade hangs on a

string before him, and sharp pink pencils are aimed at his left eye and stomach. He does not

know where he is or why he is there. Periodically, a beautiful young woman dressed in floral

summer dress enters the room and performs cruel and calculated acts of seemingly senseless

torture. Who is she? Why is she doing this? What has he done to deserve this? And most

importantly, will he survive?

Press Release

HouseofWaves Productions Debuts First Full Length Feature Film

JAKARTA, June 20, 2008: HouseofWaves Productions, an up and coming innovative

independent film collective, will be screening its first feature length movie titled The

Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi) for its World Premiere at Kinoki Coffee Shop and Screening

House in Yogyakarta on July 4, with a series of other showings also scheduled for Bandung and

Jakarta throughout July.

The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi), a raw, barebones, suspense-packed, experimental

thriller/horror flick geared to keeping audiences on the edge of their seats, is also the feature film

directorial debut of short filmmaker Paul F. Agusta, whose mini-movie presentations, such as

Fever and Lies that Bind, have been shown at art houses and cultural centers in Indonesia, while



his RTM 03.26 was also selected for showing at the Rotterdam Film Festival in the Netherlands

in 2006.

The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi) is also scheduled to screen at Q Film Festival in Jakarta

from August 7-16 this year, and is expected to be shown at a number of international film

festivals over the next few months.

The director of The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi), Paul Agusta, who is well known for his

provocative, if not radical views on filmmaking, has taken this movie as an opportunity to

continue his experimental exploration of how to bend, twist and rip apart the traditional

paradigms of filmmaking entrenched in Indonesian cinematic productions in an attempt to prove

that “it is not money that makes good movies, but good stories”.

Paul says that he strongly believes that legendary filmmaker and poet Jean Cocteau was right

when he said: "Film will only became an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and

paper."

With The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi), Paul was intent on breaking all the set-in-stone

movie making rules he could to produce a credible cinematic work as creatively and as skillfully

as he could within as short a span of time possible (10 days of shooting) with a smaller budget

than most local filmmakers spend on catering alone.

“I chose to challenge myself and the talented young members of HouseofWaves Productions

film collective with the filming of a brilliant horror-thriller scenario written by gifted short-story

writer/novelist Dalih Sembiring from an idea I came up with in a conversation a couple of years

or so ago. We all endeavored to do this so that we could prove to ourselves that we could

actually make a feature film and not just daydream about it,” Paul explained.

According to Paul, The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi) is a story of love, loss, pain, sacrifice

and revenge; a mystery that unfolds into tragedy.



The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi) stars seasoned actor Rifnu Wikana (9 Naga, Maaf Saya

Menghamili Istri Anda) in the leading male role of Yoga, a university student, who finds himself

caught up in a kind of horrible sadistic game he cannot guess the reason for; and multi-gifted

singer-songwriter Kartika Jahja in her film debut in the leading female role of Tika, a young

woman with a score to settle.

Supporting actors (all making their first appearance in a feature length film) are Jeffrey Sirie, as

a young husband whose life is shattered by unexpected events; Hukla Turangan, who plays Irma,

a carefree young woman who finds herself thrown into a desperate quest to save a life; Yoggie

Richard, as Luki, a college student who loses his first chance at love; Leha Patricia, as a high

school girl whose first love turns into a nightmare; and Ika Vantiani, a woman whose heart is so

hurt she cannot forgive.

“We believe and hope that the story itself will have meaning to audiences because it deals with

the most basic and darkest of human emotions, and how people struggle to come to grips with

them and often become consumed by them. And even though The Anniversary Gift might seem

too experimental to many contemporary Indonesian horror movie lovers, we felt like we had to

follow Paul’s creative intuition with this film,” said Yunita Candra, the producer of The

Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi).

“I also tend to believe that the human psyche can be much more terrifying than any ghosts or

demons,” Paul said.

“To me, the horror movie is one of the most difficult film genres to get right. I wanted to see if I

could really pull it off. I guess we’ll see from audience reaction; whether The Anniversary Gift

rivets people to their seats in terror, or bores them into a coma like a lot of the formula horror

flicks that have been coming out recently,” Paul said.

Makeup and Special Effects for The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi) were skillfully and

creatively handled by Indonesia’s legendary “horror flick master” Didin Syamsudin.



For more information about The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi) please visit

http://www.vengeanceispink.com

Still Photos: Taken by Keke Tumbuan

Rifnu Wikana as Yoga



Kartika Jahja as Tika



Director and Writer Biography

Paul Agusta (Director/Executive Producer/Composer/Story)

Paul Agusta was born in Jakarta in1980 and studied film in America before returning to

Indonesia in 2003. This young moviemaker believes that video levels the playing field in

filmmaking of any kind due to its affordability and availability, and that the only true resource a

video-maker needs is a solid, well thought out idea; the rest is simply implementation. There is

no excuse for video-makers not to fulfill their creative urge, you can always beg, borrow, or steal

a camera. His short videos (mostly shot on borrowed or discarded cameras) have been included

in various local and international film events and screenings. Prior to 2007, Paul had been a

nationally known film critic, festival manager, and film curator. He has since resigned from

those previous careers to focus on his work as a film and video-maker. Kado Hari Jadi (The

Anniversary Gift) is his first feature film.



Dalih Sembiring (Story/Screenplay)

Born in Binjai, North Sumatera on May 4th, 1983. A graduate of English Literature, Gadjah

Mada University, Yogyakarta, he is currently working in Jakarta as a freelance writer, translator,

and editor. He has been writing fiction since senior high school. His short stories have been

published in newspapers, magazines, journals, as well as in anthologies with other writers. He

co-wrote a teen novel called Cha untuk Chayang with Abmi Handayani (2007, Gramedia Pustaka

Utama), now in its second printing. He has also been writing features for The Jakarta Post since

September 2007 under the pseudonym Daniel Rose. Kado Hari Jadi (The Anniversary Gift) is his



second attempt at writing a film script, the first one being an unfinished script called Bila Baik

Budi. Dalih Sembiring has recently completed his first solo novel, titled Nel, which is awaiting

publication.

Director’s Statement

With The Anniversary Gift, Dalih Sembiring and I wanted to examine the nature of love, loss,

the empty promise of vengeance, and the pain that those things bring along with them. We

wanted to dissect hatred and explore its core, as well as how it can turn the hater into something

as despicable, if not worst, than the cause of their hatred itself. As a director, I wanted to tell this

tale of pain in the most visceral way possible; I wanted with every fiber in my being to open a

way for the audience to feel every ounce of pain (physical and emotional), confusion, panic,

distress, and sadness experienced by the characters in the film. We accomplished this by taking

the rawest and most real visual approach we could come up with, which included (among other

things) the use of grainy VHS-C in the torture sections, handheld “home video”-style filming for

the flashbacks (with no additional lighting; only available light was used), and a tension-building

loose camera technique for the present-day scenes outside of the torture room. It is my sincere

hope that this film will provide the audience with an emotional experience that they won’t soon

forget.

Executive Producer’s Statement This dark little film needed to be made for several reasons. Granted, it might not have been

missed at all -- what with the massive outpouring of all sorts of visual stories inundating viewers

worldwide -- in the context of the global (or even local) movie industry, the big business of DVD

rental shops, or the lower key commercial centers of art cafes and screening rooms.

It needed to be made because it is the culmination of a creative compulsion that could not be

denied. It needed to be made because it is a “first feature film” and that means there are others



(just ideas now) waiting in line for gained experience and enriched vision. It needed to be made

because it is a cathartic vehicle for a quarter century plus of creative and other life experiences

deemed capable of imploding a young director’s mind. It needed to be made so this previously

short-film director could prove to himself that he had the capacity to make a feature-length

movie. (And typically Paul Agusta set the bar as high as he could by selecting – in his own

words -- “one of the most difficult to pull off genres; the horror/thriller film”; then complicating

the process by setting an incredulously low budget {“money doesn’t make good movies, good

stories do”} and breaking all the movie making rules {“I have to follow my creative

intuition”}he could think of as creatively and as skillfully as he could in as short a span of time

as possible.)

“Kado Hari Jadi” (The Anniversary Gift) needed to be made because it is part of a collective

dream of a group of young filmmakers, movie lovers, and other creative souls who were trudging

along singly in the ranks of the many hopefuls that find their lives tangled inextricably in the

celluloid or video cables of the murky, muddy channels of mainstream movie making, before

gravitating together and deciding to cut and run from the pack with a bag full of crazy ideas and

mad dreams.

It needed to be made because “Kado Hari Jadi” started as a simple but powerful idea about how

emotion can be at once a powerfully positive force or the most destructive of elements in the life

of a human being. It then became a screenplay about love and hate; choices and constraints;

obsessions and denial; compassion and vengeance. It was a screenplay that, although the story

was dark and the horror genre isn’t my favorite mode of storytelling, thoroughly piqued my

interest and compelled me to want to see how it would come out in the more complex, layered

format that is the telling of a story on a screen.

It had to be made because, personally, I have traveled a long arduous path of setting aside my

personal aspirations for more practical considerations, and I simply couldn’t sit by and watch the



vision and potential of others with more talent and courage lie dormant for lack of

encouragement and cold, hard cash. So, even though filmmaking is not my field of material

endeavor (I am an editor and translator by profession), nor my one true passion (visual art), I do

love watching films – particularly the provocative kind, and I saw and acted on the potential I

saw in this story and in the young people telling it.

I believe in this film and what it says about contemporary global society and its penchant for

instant gratification and taking the easiest way out (in terms of the story itself and of the

decidedly difficult methods and process used to make the movie). And, most of all, I believe in

the houseofwaves film collective and their dream of opening up new paths for young artists in a

highly complex and difficult to break into field of endeavor. To me, in my current function as an

“executive producer”, it doesn’t matter whether I make any money from this investment or

whether the film is “well accepted” in a commercial sense because I know that it is a story that

needed telling and that I am helping people with significant talent to make the most of what they

have creatively.

-MARGARET ROSE GLADE AGUSTA

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

CREW

Executive Producers

Margaret Rose Glade Agusta

Paul Agusta

Linda Hollands-Sjahlim

Producer



Yunita Candra

Line Producer

Kyo Hayato Agusta

Unit Production Manager

Kyo Hayato Agusta

Director

Paul Agusta

Assistant Director

Astrid Budi

Screenwriter

Dalih Sembiring

Story by

Paul Agusta

Dalih Sembiring

Director of Photography

Wahyu Wiryawan

Camera Operator/ Assistant Camera

Riri Munaf

Stunt Cameraman

James Graciano

Editors



Lucky Kuswandi

James Graciano

Sound Editor

Edo Gimbal

Soundman

Edo_Gimbal

Boomer/Assistant Soundman

James Graciano

Gaffer/Electrician

Edo_Gimbal

Propmaster

Vivi Fransisca

Art/Production Design Team

Edo_Gimbal

Kyo Hayato Agusta

Astrid Budi

Kartika Jahja

Set Designer

Edo_Gimbal

Custom Prop Maker



Edo_Gimbal

Continuity Supervisor

Astrid Budi

Make-up and Special Effects

Didin Syamsudin

Make-up Assistants

Rika

Yeni

Wardrobe Master

Jeffrey Sirie

Wardrobe Assistant

Ria TC

Music by

elias rose and the furious pink

Tika

Set Builders

Pak Idam

Edo_Gimbal

Kyo Hayato Agusta

Wahyu Wiryawan

Still Photographers



Keke Tumbuan

Astrid Budi

Catering

Ibu Puji

Diana Saragih

Ibu Etty Budhityaswati

Transportation

Tarmudji

Maja Utama (Auto2000)

Behind The Scenes Video Production Team

Dalih Sembiring

Edo_Gimbal

James Graciano

Post Production and Promotional Funding Provided by:

Margaret Rose Glade Agusta

Edo_Gimbal

James Graciano



CAST

Yoga Rifnu Wikana

Tika Kartika Jahja

Adam Jeffrey Sirie



Irma Hukla Turangan

Elly Leha Patricia

Luky Yoggie Richard



Perempuan 1 Zhen Mung Ping

Perempuan 2 Ika Vantiani

Perempuan 3 Ria TC

Perempuan 4 Ladya Cheryl

Lelaki Gimbal Edo_Gimbal

Cewek Gosip Keke Tumbuan

Cowok Ngondek Dalih Sembiring

Dokter Leon Agusta

Kyo Kyo Hayato Agusta

Anak Kost Andre Kris Budianto

Pemain Scrabble 1 Paul Agusta

Pemain Scrabble 2 James Graciano

Anak SMA 1 Astrid Budi

Anak SMA 2 Lestari Munaf

Media Coverage

English Language Media:

1. “Rush Hour” Talk Show interview with Paul Agusta and Dalih Sembiring, KisFM

95.1FM Radio Jakarta, Tuesday, June/03/2008

2. “The Jakarta Post” Newspaper, Sunday, June/29/2008



'Kado Hari Jadi' crosses the voyeuristic boundary

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sun, 06/29/2008 | Entertainment

Director Paul F. Agusta doesn't need to be told that horror films are the easiest to do but the most

difficult to get right. In fact, he was the person who first said it.

"I know that the film will not pass censorship," 28-year old Paul said of his latest offering, last

Saturday at his home in South Jakarta.

He paused, closed his eyes and continued. "But I am willing to stand by every creative decision

I've made."

Paul was born in Jakarta and studied film in America before returning to Indonesia in 2003.

After creating 22 short films and video clips -- most of them experimental -- Paul decided it was

time he gathered his team and made their first film.

"Every filmmaker eventually wants to step forward and do a full-length film," he said.

He believes the cinema is a voyeuristic and visceral experience. "I wanted to cross the

voyeuristic boundary between the audience and the film."

Kado Hari Jadi (The Anniversary Gift) *narrates' the torture of a man -- moving backwards as it

slowly reveals the answers to an irking question over the course of a single day.

"I went completely all the way to make the film not only scary, but also scarry," he said.

Sequences of scenes about what happened prior to the torture are shown in fragments, as the film

brings the audience closer to learning how the lives of three lovers intertwined.



The movie uses the color pink as a dominant feature in the decorations used for the film to create

a false sense of comfort, Paul said.

"I try to dissect it and completely turn it inside out."

Shot with a 20-year old camera, Kado Hari Jadi aims to present reality as close as possible, then

butcher it and leave it bleeding -- as the audiences is rarely given room to breathe.

"I'm actually putting the audience at a safe distance. But I go out of my way to make sure that the

film leaves them feeling uncomfortable, angry or depressed," Paul, who decided on the story idea

with the script writer, Dalih Sembiring, said.

"The script was brilliant, dark and nihilistic, so I try to make the film as dark and as nihilistic."

Meanwhile, the actors and actresses involved gave performances that exceeded everyone's

expectation.

Kado Hari Jadi's cast includes young and new actors and actresses, including Jeffrey Sirie,

Hukla Turangan, Leha Patricia, Yoggie Richard and Kartika Jahja, a singer known for her

articulate and expressive songs.

In order to tighten the budget for the film, the team chose to sacrifice certain things, limiting the

budget to what was necessary.

Edo Gimbal, a crew member, managed to make a metal chair, which serves as the dominant prop

in the film.

As a result, the HouseofWaves production team was able to cut down the budget to less than Rp

50 million (US$ 5,705).



The production house uses a fair split system, which gives the team some space to fund their next

project.

"The system we used was accidentally a sharia system, and we see it as the most fair and

efficient way of making a film, where everybody gains ownership of the film," Paul said.

"We didn't spend too much on lights, locations, catering, and we tried to hire only the necessary

crew members for the film; and we were lucky because the story itself is minimalist," he said.

The entire shoot was done in 10 days, which included a day off for the crew.

In the end, the team leaves it to the audience to make the most of the film, which will not be

screened in theaters. It will be released in DVD format in Indonesia in July 2008 by an

independent DVD distribution label, the Marshall Plan.

"I think the best horror films are sharp, painful and visceral, not the ones that jump out and scare

you," Paul said.

"All I can say to my target audience is that this is it, and your response finishes the film." (lva)

Indonesian Language Media:

1. Rumahfilm.org review by Windu W. Jusuf. July/29/2008

2. Pikiran Rakyat Newspaper (West Java) interview with Paul Agusta on July/17/2008

3. Sinar Harapan Newspaper (Jakarta) review. July/2008

Screenings to date

Jakarta:

Press Screening: 30 June 2008, Vixen Space, Jl. Benda no.89, Kemang, Jakarta

Public Screenings:



1. 19 July 2008, Galeri Cemara 6, Jl. HOS. Cokroaminoto No: 9 - 11 Menteng, Jakarta

10350

2. 20 July 2008, Moe Music & Lounge, Jl. Mandar Utama, komp. Ruko multiguna Blok 8

A-B, Sector 3A, Bintaro Jaya

3. 9 August 2008, KineForum Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jl. Cikini Raya no.73 (as part of Q!

Film Festival 2008)

Yogyakarta:

Public Screenings:

1. 4 July 2008, Kinoki, Jl. Abu Bakar Ali No. 2. Yogyakarta (WORLD PREMIERE)

2. 7 July 2008, American Corner Library, English Literature Department, Gajah Mada

University, Yogyakarta

3. 19 August 2008, Kinoki, Jl. Abu Bakar Ali No. 2. Yogyakarta

Bandung:

Public Screenings:

1. 11 July 2008, Rumah Buku, Jl. Hegarmanah No.52, Bandung

2. 12 July 2008, Soemardja Gallery, Fine Arts Department, Bandung Institute of

Technology, Bandung

3.

Semarang:

Public Screening:

1. 14 August 2008, IMPORTAL VideoRoom, Gedung Widya Mitra, Jl. Singosari 2 No. 12

Semarang



For information concerning distribution or screenings please contact:

HouseofWaves Productions

Apartemen Permata Senayan Unit 308

Jl. Palmerah Selatan Kav. 20-21A

Jakarta Selatan

Jakarta 10270

INDONESIA

Email: [email protected]

Fax: (62)-(21)-536-4018

Telephone: (+62)-(857)-1031-3956

KADO HARI JADI - PRESS KIT

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