Judging by a poster that circulated online, one would think that recently released Indonesian film Hanum & Rangga is the country’s best shot at winning an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
But most, if not all of the quotes offering the film lavish praise on that poster turned out to have been faked.
Also read: ‘Hanum’ vs ‘Ahok’: Indonesia’s political culture wars go to the cinema
Hanum & Rangga, a religious romantic drama, is based on a biographical novel by Hanum Salsabiela Rais, who also serves as the film’s producer. Right around its release on Nov. 8, a poster for the film was posted on Hanum’s Facebook fanpage which includes quotes purportedly taken from five-star reviews from six prominent Indonesian news outlets, including lines such as, “How beautiful it is to date after marriage” by Antara and “Inspiring movie” by Viva.
But many netizens suspected that the poster wasn’t entirely truthful. Those suspicions were confirmed when Antara issued a clarification yesterday that they did not give Hanum five stars (they don’t give stars in their reviews, period) nor did they write the line in the poster. Antara even went so far as to call the poster “fake news”.
Similarly, in a fact-checking article done by Liputan 6, Viva and Kapanlagi editors said they had never published five star reviews for Hanum, with both adding that the films’ producers had apologized to them after the matter was raised.
The poster was been taken down from Hanum’s Facebook page soon after the backlash from netizens over the fake reviews began.
In a written statement, MD Pictures, the studio behind Hanum, yesterday denied they were involved in the making of the poster, raising questions as to who actually did and why it was posted on Hanum’s Facebook page in the first place.
Hanum has not released any statement regarding this controversy.
The film has been much in the news this week due to the social media “war” that erupted between its supporters and supporters of another local film that opened last weekend, A Man Called Ahok, over which film had sold more tickets — for reasons far more closely related to politics than movie preferences.
As for this fake poster marketing ploy, we’d give it one star for effort.
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