on Riar Rizaldi's Monisme: communicating with another side

Monisme sits in space between truths to speak with a people, a land, a mountain. Set against the backdrop of Merapi Indonesia’s most active volcano, Monisme forms the center of a spiral in which the film becomes increasingly entangled. Taking the role of both life-giver and spectre of death the local population living on Merapi’s land is reliant on the stability of the volcano and the fertile land it provides, this is not an equal relationship, it is not framed that Merapi needs its people, more so that Merapi is simply permitting their existence, at any point able to seismically turn this world into another. The main tension of the film portrays Merapi as a father needing to be appeased, whether it's the ecology workers, exploitative paramilitary or local shamans there is a shared fear of the volcano's might and the position of power it holds over us all.

Some of the true expertise on show within Monisme is Rizaldi’s ability to combine what would usually be considered formally incompatible genres, themes and atmospheres into one amalgamation of cinema. Within Monisme you can argue there are three, equally interconnected tales each with elements of “truth” and “fiction”. These stories are connected by Rendra Bagus Pamungkas who embodies multiple characters within the story finally being reincarnated as some kind of narrator, a Virgil figure who leads us into the final sequence; a staged but ultimately real ritual and subsequent possession. Despite my description, Monisme is not an anthology each of these stories is weaved within one another each scene flows into the next, and characters reappear and reincarnate without mention.

Unfurling like a ball of yarn extending beyond its reach, Monisme’s meaning gets muddled, reincarnated and misremembered as a spontaneous canon of events reflecting Indonesia’s own history creating a kind of cinematic otherworld. In his performance lecture, Ghosts Like Us, Rizaldi details a history of horror film exhibitions in Indonesia. Part anecdotal and part historical study, Rizaldi contextualises the exhibition and the uses of Horror films for both control and subversion within the archipelago. Horror films were used and can be argued as still being used to vilify “the rural”, this can be seen through the depiction of tradition in classical Indonesian Horror films framing those situated outside of the cities, within local communities, as communists plagued by demons. This disorderly monster needing to be exterminated by the ruling authority.

As time progressed and regimes changed there have been attempts to subvert this expectation, with the use of low-budget DIY filmmaking, those disenfranchised from state-approved cinema were able to bring a new approach to filmmaking. Rizaldi gives the example of the 2005 film Misteri Bondowoso which instead of vilifying those living in tune with their environment embraces it, featuring long sections of shamanistic practices and the associated surroundings, with no authority figure to craft a happy ending. Shot by a group of local dukun (shaman) Misteri Bondowoso leans into the historical beliefs of the land, documenting ghost hunting and ritual practice even claiming to have captured real ghosts on camera.

This kind of low-budget filmmaking was primarily circulated through bootlegs and screened in the local outdoor cinemas creating a shared cinematic language formed not by Western canon but by domestic product. A practice of third cinema, relying on the pirating of films for distribution, in opposition to Western ideologies of filmmaking. Rizaldi describes films like Misteri Bondowoso as cinematic elsewheres and creating a “possibility of other dimensions [to be] generated and accessed through the wonders of cinematic media and ritualistic practice.” Both Monisme and Ghosts Like Us are inextricably linked, with Monisme being a practical application of the ideas presented within the lecture, attempting to access another world through cinema and ritual.

Monisme is less concerned with a structure or narrative and more so focussing on the experience of watching aiming to subdue its audience into a kind of trance through ritual. The act of watching is already ritualistic, the dark tunnel leading to the screen, the dimming of the lights, we do not see the purveyor of these acts, almost supernaturally they occur in time with our actions. These acts of ritual enable us to be entranced by the cyber god, of the screen. Building on the question presented within Ghosts Like Us of when and where is cinema, Monisme adds who is cinema. During the production of Monisme Rizaldi consulted a local shaman who communicated with the volcano asking how it would like to be portrayed in the film. An attempt at bridging the gaps between human and non-human can be seen during the film's climax, with a member of the crew becoming possessed during the final ritual. Approaching cinema as something not exclusively for human audiences; acknowledging the monistic belief of the interconnectedness of all things, denying the existence of a distinction between matter and mind, god and the world.

Rizaldi describes monistic belief as that of nature being god and god being nature and therefore reality itself being god. Rizaldi outlines this belief as being present within people living in the mountain for generations, for many Merapi is god. Volcanoes and humans as one of the same.