Muslim love story becomes Indonesian hit (JAKARTA Reuters)

An Indonesian film seeking to shatter religious stereotypes and show the compassionate face of Islam has become one of the biggest blockbuster hits in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

More than three million people, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and top government officials, have flocked to cinemas to watch Ayat Ayat Cinta (Verses of Love), an Islamic romance released in the middle of January.

The movie deals with a host of sensitive issues such as Islam's treatment of women and multiple marriages through the story of Fahri Abdullah Shiddiq, an Indonesian graduate student at Egypt's Al-Azhar University, and his struggle to deal with life's problems through Islamic teachings.
Film-maker Hanung Bramantyo, 33, who has won two Citra awards -- Indonesia's equivalent of the Oscars -- says his mission is to present Islam as a tolerant and peaceful religion.

"I wanted to tell a story about Islam from a universal point of view," Bramantyo told Reuters at his modest office tucked in a narrow South Jakarta street.

"I want to tell my audience that there are people who are hip, fashionable and capable of socializing but at the same time do things in an Islamic way," he said.

Yudhoyono, who watched the film at an up market cinema with his family and 80 foreign ambassadors and diplomats, said the film was inspiring.

"I had to wipe my tears several times. It drives home the message," Yudhoyono said after watching the film.
Antithesis to Fitna

Yudhoyono's spokesman called the film an "antithesis" to a video accusing the Quran of inciting violence, made by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders and released on the Internet last week.

Wilders' film "Fitna" (an Arabic term sometimes translated as "strife") intersperses images of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and Islamist bombings with quotations from the Quran, Islam's holy book.

Ayat Ayat Cinta, based on a best-selling novel by Indonesian novelist Habiburrahman El Shirazy, is the story of the handsome and intelligent protagonist, Fahri, who has to choose a wife from four different and attractive women who fall in love with him.

He eventually marries Aisha, a veiled Turkish-German student, but soon their life is shattered as he is jailed after falsely being accused of rape and facing death by hanging.

Maria, a Coptic-Christian Egyptian, is the only one who can prove Fahri's innocence, but she is dying of a broken heart after learning of his marriage.

Aisha begs him to take Maria as a second wife so he can revive her from a coma and testify in his favor.

Some viewers have criticized the film because they believe it promotes polygamy, which is not uncommon in Indonesia itself but is frowned upon by many, especially the urban elite.

Bramantyo, who has eight silver-screen films under his belts, says he plans is to make an extended version of Ayat Ayat Cinta for the international market.***


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