''Lintah Darat'' (; Malay for ''Loan Shark'') is a 1941 film from the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

(now Indonesia) directed by Wu Tsun and produced by Jo Eng Sek.

Plot

Sisters Asnah and Kumala are polar opposites: Asnah is rude and rough, whereas Kumala is polite and refined. When she is disappointed that the boy of her dreams, Safi'i, is more interested in her sister, Asnah decides to go to Batavia (now

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 ...

) to become a singer. Though she becomes rich, Asnah refuses to share her money with her family. The sisters' mother falls ill, and because Asnah has not given the family any of her earnings, Kumala must borrow from a

loan shark A loan shark is a person who offers loans at Usury, extremely high or illegal interest rates, has strict terms of debt collection, collection, and generally operates criminal, outside the law, often using the threat of violence or other illegal, ...

named Karim; unknown to Kumala, Karim has married Asnah. The treatment paid for by this loan is unsuccessful and her mother dies. All of the family's possessions are repossessed to pay back the debt. Kumala complains to Safi'i, who has been working to remove known loan sharks from the area, and he responds by orchestrating an attack against the loan shark, who has since divorced Asnah. After the loan shark is removed, Kumala and Safi'i can live happily ever after.

Production

''Lintah Darat'', produced by Jo Eng Sek for

Star Film The Manufacture de Films pour Cinématographes, often known as Star Film, was a French film production company run by the illusionist and film director Georges Méliès. History On 28 December 1895, Méliès attended the celebrated first publi ...

, was directed by Wu Tsun. The

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, ...

film featured cinematography by Chok Chin Hsien. It starred Elly Joenara, Satijem, M. Arief, Aboebakar Djoenaedi, and S Waldy. Joenara had already starred in several films for Star, including '' Tjioeng Wanara''.

Release and legacy

A test screening of ''Lintah Darat'', which was targeted at audiences over the age of 17, was held in Batavia on 28 August 1941; this test screening received full audiences and a positive review from ''

De Indische Courant ''De Indische Courant'' was the name of a number of Dutch language newspapers published on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). Early newspapers The first paper under this name was published in 1870 (in the classi ...

''. A review from

Surabaya Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Provinces of Indonesia, province and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern corner of Java island, on the Madura Strai ...

for the '' Soerabaijasch Handelsblad'' found the film interesting and easy to follow, particularly praising the condemnation of

usury Usury () is the practice of making loans that are seen as unfairly enriching the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is charged in e ...

. By the end of September 1941 the film was being shown in

Medan Medan ( , ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of North Sumatra. The nearby Strait of Malacca, Port of Belawan, and Kualanamu International Airport make Medan a regional hub and multi ...

. Advertisements for ''Lintah Darat'' date as late as December 1948 in the Indies and November 1949 in Singapore, where it was advertised as "one of the greatest Malay films". The film is now likely lost. The American visual anthropologist

Karl G. Heider Karl Heider (born January 21, 1935) is an American visual anthropologist. Life and education Heider was born in Northampton, Massachusetts. Heider is the son of psychologists Fritz and Grace (née Moore) Heider. He had two brothers; John and S ...

writes that all Indonesian films from before 1950 are lost. However, JB Kristanto's ''Katalog Film Indonesia'' (''Indonesian Film Catalogue'') records several as having survived at

Sinematek Indonesia Sinematek Indonesia, or Sinematek for short, is a film archive located in Jakarta. Established in 1975 by Misbach Yusa Biran and Asrul Sani, the archive was the first in Southeast Asia, and remains the only one in Indonesia. It is home to rough ...

's archives, and Biran writes that several Japanese propaganda films have survived at the

Netherlands Government Information Service The Netherlands Government Information Service (''Dutch:'' Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst, abbrev.: RVD) is a Dutch government agency. The RVD is the official information service of the Dutch government and is the spokesbody for the prime minister, th ...

References

Works cited

* * * * * * * * * {{Portal bar, Film, Indonesia, Netherlands Dutch East Indies films Malay-language films Indonesian black-and-white films