Ada Apa Dengan Cinta

based on the film by Rudi Soedjarwo

Ada Apa Dengan Cinta, developed in 2003 under the leadership of Prof. Uli Kozok, is aimed for speakers who already have advanced proficiency in the Indonesian language. It is intended for learners who already have a firm knowledge in formal standard Indonesian, and who want to develop their knowledge of Jakarta-style colloquial Indonesian.

The materials developed for this course are subject to a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) creative commons license. They can be downloaded for free, and the AADC DVD (with or without English subtitles) can be ordered by directly from Uli Kozok (Email uli [at] bahasa [dot] net. The price is USD30, €25, or NZ$35 inclusive world-wide shipping.

“Ada Apa Dengan Cinta” (What’s Up with Love?) is a popular movie directed by Rudi Soedjarwo. When it first appeared in 2002 it marked the come-back of the Indonesian film industry after it had been suppressed by the Soeharto regime (1965–1998).

The Plot

(The following is closely based on an Wikipedia article.)

Cinta is a popular teenage girl living a comfortable lifestyle in a plush Jakarta neighbourhood. She is gifted and accomplished, surrounded by a group of faithful friends, and has caring and supportive parents. The story begins with Cinta and her four best friends crying on each other’s shoulders for Alya, who was the victim of domestic abuse by her father. Cinta recites the group’s pledge to the buku curhat, a diary or scrapbook shared by the girls, that a problem one of them is going through is to be shared with all of them.

Cinta is a school poet who has been honoured for her work, and, in her final year of high school, she submits a poem to the yearly poetry contest. However, the grand prize in the contest is awarded to a boy named Rangga. Rather than going to the podium to receive his prize, Rangga takes offence and retreats to a hiding spot.

Rangga’s name is rarely heard of in the school, and his best friend is the school caretaker. Rangga lives in a lower middle-class neighbourhood with his father Yusrizal. Rangga’s parents divorced because of his father’s disengagement from the government office for exposing government corruption.

Cinta is jealous of Rangga’s unexpected victory, but is careful not to show it. This leads Cinta to search for Rangga and request an interview for the school bulletin. However, Rangga immediately detects insincerity in Cinta’s congratulations and walks away, leaving Cinta to be irritated by his perceived arrogance. As it turns out, Rangga never entered his poem for the contest; it was submitted on his behalf by the school caretaker. Cinta starts finding herself admiring Rangga’s poetry and sees that they have a shared interest in post-war Indonesian literature, and the two began to meet regularly, but their friendship is coloured with quarrels and arguments. The two like each other and the friendship begins to evolve into romance, but fear and pride keep either Cinta or Rangga from admitting it.

The secret friendship causes dramatic changes in Cinta’s behaviour, resulting in problems with Cinta’s clique. Rangga is beaten up by Borne, a popular rich boy who had been trying to enter a relationship with Cinta. One day, a date with Rangga makes Cinta ignore a desperate phone call from Alya. This produces a tragic consequence and a crisis of trust among the five friends. Cinta’s guilt and shame at herself causes her to lash out at Rangga and jeopardise their friendship.