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Mencari Madonna

Mencari Madonna
Directed by John de Rantau
Produced by Garin Nugroho
Written by John de Rantau
Garin Nugroho
Starring Clara Sinta
Samuel Tunya
Minus C. Caroba
Music by Fahmi Alatas
Cinematography Suadi Hutama
Edited by Andhy Pulung
Distributed by SET Foundation
Release date
  • 2005 (2005)
Running time
93 minutes
Country Indonesia
Language Indonesian
Budget Rp 400 million

Mencari Madonna (Looking for Madonna) is a 2005 film by Indonesian director John de Rantau. Produced to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in Papua, it starred Clara Sinta, Samuel Tunya, and Minus C. Caroba.

At a mob (party) in Papua, Minus (Minus C. Caroba), a high school student, is preparing for sexual relations with twin girls. Meanwhile, his friend Joseph (Samuel Tunya) and Yolanda have sex in the shadows of the party. Unbeknownst to Joseph, Yolanda is infected with AIDS.

When Yolanda's family discover her infection, they burn her alive as she has shamed the family. Together with Minus, Joseph — now aware that he is infected — makes his way back to his hometown to look for a job cutting agarwood. In town, they meet a prostitute named Madonna (Clara Sinta), who was sent to Papua from Java by her pimp after being infected with AIDS.

When she discovers that Joseph is also infected, she takes him in, while refusing advances by other woodcutters. When he dies, Madonna and Minus mourn in their own ways, Madonna by lighting a candle and Minus by watching a video of his friend.

Mencari Madonna was sponsored by the Science, Esthetics, and Technology (Sains Estetik Teknologi, or SET) Foundation, which was established by Garin Nugroho; Nugroho also produced.John de Rantau was chosen to direct; it was his feature film debut, although he had shot sinetron (local soap operas) before. According to the director and producer, the film arose from a trip the two made to Papua at the behest of the current governor. In Papua, they discovered that the area's permissive attitude towards premarital sex had led it to having the second-most HIV/AIDS cases in Indonesia.

When Nugroho was unable to provide a shooting script, de Rantau and the locally-cast actors shot — Clara Sinta was the only professional actor involved — without one. The film, with a budget of Rp 400 million (US$ 50,000), was finished in one week. Leo Sutanto of SinemArt donated Rp 300 million towards its production.


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