A total of nine Indonesian films will get the festival treatment in Korea this week, including a biopic of Indonesia’s third president, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie.

The first Indonesia Film Festival kicks off in Korea on Thursday, co-presented by Korea’s major multiplex chain CJ CGV, Korean entertainment company CJ E&M, Indonesian chain of movie theaters Blitz Megaplex and Indonesian film distribution company Jive Entertainment.

The film festival will be held in Seoul and Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, at the same time. Ansan is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the country with foreign nationals accounting for 7.6 percent of its total population.

“There are about 40,000 Indonesians currently living in Korea,” said Megaphone, the festival’s local promoters. “We hope to provide an opportunity for moviegoers to understand Indonesian culture and its people through the movies.”

One of the films included in the lineup is “Habibie & Ainun,” a 2012 film directed by Faozan Rizal and starring Reza Rahadian and Bunga Citra Lestari.

The film is a biopic of Indonesia’s third president Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, whose presidency lasted from 1998 to 1999.

It focuses on the former president’s relationship with his late wife and medical doctor Hasri Ainun Besari, who died in 2010. The drama is in fact based on Habibie’s own memoir that recounts his marriage with Besari, “Habibie & Ainun,” published in 2010.

Also included in the lineup is filmmaker Riri Riza’s 2008 film “The Rainbow Troops.” Based on the popular Indonesian novel of the same title by Andrea Hirata, the movie features a group of 10 school boys and their teachers living on the farming and mining island of Belitung.

The plot of the film develops as the kids struggle with poverty and form hopes for their village. The film is one of the highest-grossing movies in Indonesian box-office history.

Meanwhile, “Rectoverso” is an omnibus film that brings together five Indonesian women directors.

It features five tales that explore the theme of love from different perspectives. One of them is about an autistic man falling in love but unable to express his feelings, while others include a story of two friends developing romantic feelings for each other. 

Director Ifa Isfansyah’s 2011 “The Dancer,” on the other hand, tells a love story that takes place in a poor Javanese village in the 1960s. It features a young female protagonist who becomes a Ronggeng ― a traditional Javanese dance worshipped by the villagers ― while her boyfriend does not like the idea.

Aside from drama and romance, a horror film is also included in the lineup. Indonesian screenwriter and filmmaker Upi Avianto’s 2012 horror flick “Belenggu (Shackled)” portrays the tale of a man who repeatedly has nightmares about an unknown woman being killed by a man in a rabbit suit. The film premiered at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in Korea last year.

Indonesia Film Festival runs from Sept. 26 to Oct. 2 at CGV Yongsan in Seoul and CGV Ansan in Gyeonggi Province. For more information, call (02) 517-3353.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)