An Indonesia documentary about street musicians recently won best documentary at the Busan Film Festival in South Korea.

The film tells the story of Boni, Ho and Titi – three gifted, charismatic bus musicians in Jakarta.

And through them, a wider story of contemporary Indonesia and particularly the frenzied capital Jakarta.

“Jalanan” was seven years in the making and is the work of Canadian journalists Daniel Ziv.

“I was always fascinated by this culture of street musicians. It’s very unique even in South-east Asia. There’s no other phenomenon like that where you have these entire communities of 6-7 thousand street musicians with their political and social messages. So I wrote a couple of feature length articles about them and a chapter in my book but I felt that the write page was very limiting…it didn’t really capture the sound obviously and the colour. I thought wouldn’t it be cool to be able to tell this story in a video…”

To find the main characters for the film Daniel says he carried out ‘secret auditions”, by going on and off Metro Mini buses in Jakarta searching for the right street musicians. 

“I was looking for musicians with a certain degree of talent; they didn’t have to be Indonesian idol or American idol quality but they had to be able to singer and play music and I wanted musicians who have a lot of personality that really jumped off the screen because I think that is what always makes a good documentary and then I wanted musicians who wrote their own songs rather than doing just cover songs. And when I met Ho, Boni and Titi I knew right away that those were the people I wanted to work with. I met them separately but kind of within the same couple of weeks.  It was a gamble that paid off. I never stopped believing in their stories and in their personality. Most people who have seen the film say the stronger aspect is their characters so they work really well on film.”

Ho says he had been waiting for someone to make a film about his life. 

“I always wanted a film to be made about my life and it turns out that Daniel wasn’t lying, he wasn’t joking. He was serious. I asked Daniel, are you serious? I said ‘If you’re serious, then I will be serious.’ Daniel told me that he’s serious and wanted to start right away and I was like ‘OK let’s go’.”

But Boni was more suspicious.

“It’s just that there are some journalists that have come along and made money from our stories. They use street musicians and street children for their own benefit.   I really hate that. I want the journalist to wake me up, to have a chat with me, eat with me. It’s not because we just care about money but life in Jakarta is hard…really hard.”

Titi says her friends were also skeptical about Daniel’s motives.

“Some of my friends were jealous. They said ‘what are you doing with a foreigner? You’re so stupid. They will just take pictures of you, and sell them overseas. I said ‘Well that’s their right. If we can make someone else happy then it’s worth it.”

They all say they build up close relationship with the Director Daniel Ziv over the seven years of shooting.

As a result the film shows intimate moments in their lives 

Ho using prostitute and being arrested and put in jail… Boni’s home under a bridge destroyed by a flood…

And the break-down of Titi’s relationships with her husband

“If my family sees the film... ah! But what’s more important to me is that it’s a true representation of my life. What’s most important is that my husband supports me, nothing else really matters... It’s my life.”

“I find it hard to watch it... it’s devastating… It’s our real life on the big screen. It’s not just a film. It’s real. But there’s nothing I can do about it now.”

Daniel says the target audience for the film is both international community and the local Indonesian market. 

And during the process of film making, he says that the documentary changed from being a film purely about street musicians into a documentary about Indonesia in a much wider sense…

“The more I zoom on these three lives as a microcosm it really told us so much about Indonesia.  The issues that they were dealing with, the relationship with them and the powers to be, the idea of being marginalized poor in Jakarta and what that means in terms in of identity, opportunity and social mobility or lack there of. And now if you watch Jalanan you really think you that it’s a film about Indonesian that happens to be told through the perspective of three street musicians.”

Ho says he is hoping that rich people in Jakarta see the film and it opens their eyes to the reality of the cities poor.

And he is hoping via the film… he too becomes closer to become one of the rich. He travelled overseas for the first time to receive the best film award at the Busan film festival in South Korea.

The plan is for the film to be released here in Indonesian early next year. 

“It feels really good! Whoa, I’m a movie star now! I’m really happy. We’re movie stars now??.. (laughing). I feel happy and fulfilled. It’s now worth the 7 years of work after all. I thank you everyone who has prayed for Titi.”