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After 'Last of Us' snub, govt seeks to bring filming Indonesia home
The government plans to bring foreign filmmakers to shoot Indonesia scenes in Indonesia with a variety of incentives and regulatory reform to speed up permits.
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An audience waits for a film to be screened at Pasar Teluk Gong, North Jakarta, on March 7, 2019. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
T
he government is looking for ways to bring the international film industry home, following a series of movies having their Indonesia scene shot elsewhere rather than filming it directly in the country.
Lack of incentives and complicated regulations are said to be the most prominent obstacles for foreign production houses to shoot some of their scenes in Indonesia, according to government officials and local filmmakers.
Recently, the Last of Us, a live-action adaptation of the popular video game produced by filming-site HBO aired starting in January, featured Jakarta in one of its episodes, albeit the scene was shot far away in Canada, according to the government.
Odo R.M. Manuhutu, the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister's undersecretary for tourism and the creative economy, admitted there had been red tape preventing the filming from taking place in Indonesia, which he regarded as opportunity lost for the local film and creative industry.
“One of the causes is the lengthy process to acquire a permit [to shoot the scene in Indonesia],” Odo told audiences in Jakarta on Monday.
The TV series is not the first to have an Indonesian scene shot elsewhere. Ticket to Paradise, a romantic-comedy film released last year, also featured a scene in Bali, but it was filmed in Australia, while Gold, a 2016 film based on a past gold-mining scandal, featured a scene in Kalimantan, but shot in Thailand.
Read also: Watching HBO's ‘The Last of Us' with Christine Hakim at her home
