Indonesian Book Club – Cigarette Girl Screening

Name: Indonesian Book Club – Cigarette Girl Screening
Start: 2023-11-24T17:30:00+08:00
End: 2023-11-24T20:00:00+08:00
Location: Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia

As the closing of Indonesian Book Club this year, KJRI Perth presents a special screening of Cigarette Girl, adapted from the book by Ratih Kumala.

Nov 24, 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia

The Centre for Stories, in collaboration with the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Perth, is thrilled to announce our final monthly book club for 2023 will be a special screening and book discussion.

As the closing of Indonesian Book Club this year, KJRI Perth presents a special screening of Cigarette Girl, adapted from the book by Ratih Kumala.

Dive into the story of love, family secrets and history of kretek cigarettes during the Dutch and Japanese occupation in Indonesia. Cigarette Girl has received numerous awards and has been translated into many languages. Following the success, ‘Cigarette Girl’ will be released on Netflix this November.

Please note this event will be held at Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia: KJRI Perth, 134 Adelaide Terrace, East Perth WA 6004.

ABOUT THE BOOK/FILM

Soeraja is dying. On his deathbed he calls for Jeng Yah, a woman who is not his wife. His three sons, Lebas, Karim and Tegar – heirs to Kretek Djagad Raja, Indonesia’s largest clove cigarette empire – are shocked, and their mother is consumed by jealousy. So begins the brothers’ search into the deepest recesses of Java for Jeng Yah, to fulfil their father’s dying wish and to learn the truth about the family business and its secrets. Cigarette Girl is more than just a love story and the soul-searching journey of three brothers. Set on the island of Java the story follows the evolution of a family’s kretek, or clove cigarette, business from its birth in the Dutch East Indies of the early 1940s, and it takes readers through three generations of Indonesian history, from the Dutch colonial era to the Japanese occupation, the struggle for independence and the bloody coup of 1965 in which half a million Indonesians were hunted down and killed.

TICKETS

Tickets are free but registration is essential. RSVP here.

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR

Alberta Natasia Adji is a contemporary author living in Perth. She has published her short fiction in New Writing, Meniscusand The Incompleteness Book. Her current creative project is concerned with family history within a Chinese-Indonesian context and the genre of auto/biographical fiction.

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