Short version of performance traditional Mendu. Mendu is a form of traditional theater from the areas surrounding Pontianak and Menpawah. The settings – palace courts, forests, and rivers – for Mendu theater ar realistic and presented is a proscenium format. The stories are derrived from the folklore of “One Thousand and One Nights” and "Sahibul Hikayat", and dialogue combines the Malay and Indonesian languages. Scene transitions are marked by musical interludes featuring drums, gongs, violin and other instruments depening on what the story being told requires.
In certain scenes, dances are carried out by both male and female performers.

This film is short version of performance tradition Mendu filmed at Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, as part of the 'On the Record: Indonesian Performance Tradition" series which features interview with the artists of performance tradition. This series consists of raw documentary footage of each region’s oral traditions, mostly in the local language/dialect. A few films have some narration in Indonesian. Lontar has documented 30 performances around Indonesia.

Publisher: Lontar Foundation

Place of Publication: Jakarta

Publisher URL: http://www.lontar.org

Created: 1999