Sisworo Gautama Putra’s Primitives and the paradox of savagery

Abstract

This article discusses the lone outlier associated with the cannibal boom of European exploitation films in the 1970s and 1980s – with the main point of diversion being that Sisworo Gautama Putra’s film is an Indonesian production rather than the typical Italian fare. Being an Asian film that emulates the traditionally European style of cannibal film, Primitives opens a larger discussion about the role of the theoretical savage and the implications thereof, put in place by ghosts of imperialism and cinematic mimicry. The author explores these concepts with psychoanalytic input, opting to unpack the rationality behind an Indonesian film following the same imperialist notions utilized by the preceding Italian directors, which ultimately results in a subdivision of the artificial–natural dichotomy: the meta-natural.