The Rainbow Troops

The Rainbow Troops (2008)

Laskar Pelangi

Ten students, two teachers, and a thousand dreams

A group of 10 students struggles with poverty and develop hopes for the future in Gantong Village on the farming and tin mining island of Belitung.

Date of release
2008-09-25
TMDB
7.6 / 10 (32)
Runtime
2h 0m
Genres
Drama, Family
Director
Riri Riza
Collection
Laskar Pelangi Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Indonesia

Laskar Pelangi is a 2008 Indonesian drama film adapted from the novel of the same name by Andrea Hirata. The film follows a group of 10 students and their two inspirational teachers as they struggle with poverty and develop hopes for the future in Gantong Village, located in Belitung. The film became a box office and critical success, becoming one of the highest-grossing in Indonesian box office history receiving a number of local and international awards.

Background and impact

The film reportedly cost 8 billion rupiah (US$890,000; ~ US$1,000,000 in 2017, accounting for inflation) to make and was a year in production. Most of the child actors in the film are from Belitung, and Producer Mira Lesmana explained that choice by saying: "In my opinion, there won't be any actors with a deeper connection to the roles than those who were born and lived in Belitong their entire life."

The Bangka Belitung provincial government declared some of the locations used in the film as areas of importance to culture and tourism in 2010, and provincial tourism chief Yan Megawandi said the decision was "primarily" made to help raise funds for the Muhammadiyah elementary school on which the film and novel's story are centered.

The film's local and international success fueled a tourism boom on Belitung, with Indonesian airline Garuda Indonesia reopening direct service from Jakarta to Tanjung Pandan, Belitung's capital. A provincial government official that month said he had no hard data on the increase in tourist arrivals as a result of the film, but said that nearly all seats on flights to the island from Jakarta were booked in the first week it was open and that most…

A Belitung-based local newspaper Pos Belitung refers to the movie title in its motto, "Spirit Baru Negeri Laskar Pelangi" (New Spirit of the Land of Rainbow Troops).

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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