SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The sudden onset of sustained anti-LGBT discourse in Indonesia in 2016 gives pause to revisit a number of Indonesian movies from recent years, a cinema which has, since its re-emergence in the early 2000s, been noted for its positive engagement with non-normative genders and sexualities. Was there anything in those movies that forewarned the homophobic discourse that dominated politics and the media in the early months of 2016? When queer cinematic characters were faced with intolerance or a fear of unacceptance, how did those characters find a space for themselves in the cinematic imaging of the Indonesian city? Paying particular attention to Lucky Kuswandi’s 2013 film Selamat pagi, malam (In the absence of the sun), alongside Joko Anwar’s film Janji Joni (Joni’s promise) and Ardy Octaviand’s 2007 film Coklat stroberi (Chocolate strawberry), this article draws on Michel de Certeau’s concept of tactics to discuss how queer characters find ways to embody their queer selves in the supposedly heterosexual spaces of the city.