Sekar Ayu Asmara is an Indonesian songwriter, director, and author.

Biography

Asmara was born in Jakarta to a diplomat and his wife. She accompanied her father to foreign countries when he received an assignment. While overseas with her family, she attended several colleges. She first worked in advertising, but in the 1980s Asmara began writing songs, with her first released song being "Susie Bhelel", sung by

Fariz RM Fariz Rustam Munaf (born 5 January 1959), better known as Fariz RM, is an Indonesian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of mixed ethnic Minangkabau people, Minangkabau and Indo people, Dutch-Betawi descent. He is the uncle of Indonesian ...

for his 1989 album ''Fashionova''. She entered filmmaking by producing commercials and the music video for KLa Project's "Tak Bisa Ke Lain Hati". Although she wanted to make a featured length film, she feared that the

Suharto Suharto (8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian Officer (armed forces), military officer and politician, and dictator, who was the second and longest serving president of Indonesia, serving from 1967 to 1998. His 32 years rule, cha ...

-era

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

would censor any film she made. As such, her initial scripts went unfilmed. She rose to prominence with the release of her directorial debut, ''

Biola Tak Berdawai ''Biola Tak Berdawai'' () is an Indonesian film directed by Sekar Ayu Asmara. It was released by Kalyana Shira Film on 22 March 2003, with wider release on 4 April. Telling the story of a rape victim who attempts to use music to heal an autisti ...

'' (''The Stringless Violin''), in 2003. She also wrote the script and assisted in the production of the film.

Style

In contrast to the increasingly frank depiction of sexuality by female writers such as

Ayu Utami Ayu Utami (born 21 November 1968) is an Indonesian writer who has written novels, short-stories, and articles. '' Saman'' (1998) is widely considered her masterpiece. It was translated into English by Pamela Allen in 2005. By writing about sex ...

after the fall of the New Order, Asmara's works take a more conservative view. Tineke Hellwig of the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

, ''Biola Tak Berdawai'' is anti-feminist to the point of being

misogynistic Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practis ...

. Her female characters are often pregnant or have undergone an abortion; several also have cancer of the reproductive organs. According to Hellwig, the traditional view of women being loving mothers is idealized in Asmara's works, but rarely shown.

Personal life

Asmara is a fan of musicals, and has noted that she has already written one that she hopes to make if there is enough money; she has already written the songs for it. She also likes the Hindu epic ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

''. She has stated that she writes about things that "other people are not producing".

Awards and recognition

Asmara received the Best New Director award at the 2003

Cairo International Film Festival The Cairo International Film Festival is an annual internationally accredited film festival held in Cairo Opera House. It was established in 1976 and has taken place every year since its inception, except for 2011 and 2013, when it was cancelled ...

for ''Biola Tak Berdawai''.

Filmography

* '' Ca-Bau-Kan'' (2001, as music producer) * ''

'' (''The Stringless Violin'', 2003, as writer, producer, and director) * ''Belahan Jiwa'' (''Soulmates'', 2003, as writer and director) * ''Telanjang?'' (''Naked?'', 2006, as writer and director) * ''

Pesan Dari Surga Pesan (, also Romanized as Pesān; also known as Yesān) is a village in Targavar Rural District, Silvaneh District, Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persi ...

'' (''Message from Heaven'', 2006, as writer and director) * '' Selamanya'' (''Forever'', 2007, as writer)

Publications

* ''Pintu Terlarang'' (''The Forbidden Door'', 2004) * ''Kembar Keempat'' (''Fourth Twin'', 2005) * ''Doa Ibu'' (''Mother's Prayers'', 2009)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Asmara, Sekar Ayu Living people Indonesian women writers Indonesian screenwriters Indonesian songwriters Indonesian film directors Year of birth missing (living people) Indonesian women film directors