''Anak Perawan di Sarang Penjamun'' ( Perfected Spelling: ''Anak Perawan di Sarang Penyamun''; literally ''The Virgin in the Robbers' Nest'') is a 1962 Indonesian film directed and produced by

Usmar Ismail Usmar Ismail (20 March 1921 – 2 January 1971) was an Indonesian film director, author, journalist and revolutionary of Minangkabau descent. He is widely regarded as the native Indonesian pioneer of the cinema of Indonesia. Biography Ismail ...

for PERFINI. Starring Bambang Hermanto and Nurbani Yusuf, it follows a young woman who is kidnapped by a group of bandits, only to fall in love with their leader. The film, adapted from the 1940 novel of the same name by

Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana (11 February 1908 – 17 July 1994) was an Indonesian author. He was born in Natal, North Sumatra. His family came from Minangkabau who migrated there in the 19th century. He was a founder and editor of '' Poedjan ...

, was repeatedly blacklisted by the Indonesian government and only saw release several years after production ended.

Plot

Medasing (Bambang Hermanto) is the fierce leader of a group of robbers who joined them after his parents were killed. He and his gang track the movements of a rich merchant (Rd Ismail) and his family, who are returning from a successful business trip. While the family is sleeping in the woods, Medasing and his men sneak into the camp, where they kill most of the porters and merchant. Leaving the merchant's wife behind, Medasing takes the merchant's daughter Sayu (Nurbani Yusuf) with him. He brings her to their hideout, where she is held captive. Sayu discovers that, despite his fierce exterior, Medasing has a kind heart. He does not allow any of the gang to treat her improperly, and she is essentially free to act as she pleases. Over the months, Sayu and her kind heart are able to stir Medasing and prompt him to change his ways. After the members of his gang are killed in various mishaps, Medasing is gravely injured. Sayu tends to his wounds, and in return he brings her back to her village. They are married, and Medasing slowly rejoins society.

Production

The film was directed and produced by

for his production company PERFINI. It saw Max Tera collaborating with Kasdullah and Kosnen on camera, with the film shot in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

. Ardi Ahmad served as

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

. In post-production Jack Lesmana handled music while Kemal Redha and E Sambas did sound. The film was edited by three persons: Soemardjono, Janis Badar, and SK Syamsuri. Its cast included Bambang Hermanto, Nurbani Yusuf in the starring roles, as well as Bambang Irawan, Rachmat Hidayat, and Rd Ismail. Ismail adapted ''Anak Perawan di Sarang Penjamun'' from the novel of the same name by

. Initially printed as a serial, the novel had been published in 1940 by Pustaka Rakyat. Ismail advertised it as the first

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

of an Indonesian novel. However, several adaptations had been released previously, including an adaptation of

Marah Roesli Marah Roesli (; full name: Marah Rusli bin Abu Bakar) was an Indonesian writer. Biography Marah Roesli was born in Padang, Indonesia, Padang, West Sumatra on 7 August 1889, and died in Bandung, West Java on 17 January 1968. He was one of the mo ...

's '' Sitti Nurbaya'' by Lie Tek Swie in 1941.

Release and reception

''Anak Perawan di Sarang Penjamun'' was produced beginning in 1962. At the time tensions between

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

and rightist movements, both in politics and the arts, were reaching a high. The

Communist Party of Indonesia The Communist Party of Indonesia (Indonesian language, Indonesian: ''Partai Komunis Indonesia'', PKI) was a communist party in the Dutch East Indies and later Indonesia. It was the largest non-ruling communist party in the world before its Indo ...

-allied arts group Lekra would call for the

Sukarno Sukarno (6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of the Indonesian struggle for independenc ...

government to block films by non-Lekra filmmakers as anti-revolutionary. After a press screening on 26 February 1964, ''Anak Perawan di Sarang Penjamun'' was challenged by Lekra; a review in ''Warta Bhakti'' considered the film to "betrayal the ndonesian people'sstruggle", owing to the film's pro- Malay sentiment during the ongoing confrontation with Malaysia. However, the Indonesian film historian Salim Said suggests that the film was condemned not because of its plot, but because of Alsijahbana's alliance to the Socialist Party of Indonesia. In response to this challenge, Ismail removed Alisjahbana's name from the film's credits. This move was unable to placate Lekra, and it was eventually banned from release. After the

30 September Movement The Thirtieth of September Movement (, also known as G30S, and by the syllabic abbreviation Gestapu for ''Gerakan September Tiga Puluh'', Thirtieth of September Movement, also unofficially called Gestok, for ''Gerakan Satu Oktober'', or Fir ...

and the ensuing anti-communist purge, the Communist Party and most leftists were destroyed. ''Anak Perawan di Sarang Penjamun'', however, remained blacklisted because of Hermanto's previous membership in the Communist Party. A

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

edition was ultimately released in the 1990s. A 35 mm copy is stored at Sinematek Indonesia in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

Explanatory notes

Footnotes

Works cited

* * * * * * * {{Usmar Ismail Films directed by Usmar Ismail Films based on Indonesian novels Indonesian black-and-white films