Bali’s provincial government, through the Office of Culture, has reportedly decided not to give its approval for filmmakers who want to adapt the tragedy of the eight-year-old Engeline’s murder.
Head of the Bali Provincial Cultural Office, Dewa Putu Beratha said a permit’s application for approval had been filed by PT Citra Visual Cinema for the film’s touchy subject matter.
“We received the submission of the license in the mail around mid-January,” Beratha said on Thursday, as quoted by VIVA News.
Before giving the permission to proceed with the film, Beratha says the opinion was asked from all relevant departments and agencies on the matter, such as from Social Services, the police, the Denpasar-chapter Integrated Service Center for the Empowerment of Women and Children (P2TP2A), and so on.
Based on the input of all these groups, Beratha says his office decided to refuse to issue a permit to the filmmakers—though Indonesia’s Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister was apparently okay with the film as long as it was made after the girl’s murder trial was finished.
Other than the notion that a film about the disturbing death of a little girl would make Bali and Indonesia look bad and would give the country bad publicity, Beratha also says this film wouldn’t be a good direction for Bali.
“We do not want to take the risk to set a bad precedent for Bali,” he explained.
The filmmakers are probably reading about their rejection in the news, since Beratha says they will be submitting the official rejection letter by snail mail, since the application was by post (in other words, seems like they wanted to avoid an awkward conversation).
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