Garin Nugroho - Biography

Biography

Nugroho was born in Yogyakarta, Special Region of Yogyakarta on 6 June 1961. He was the fourth child of postal workers Soetjipto Amin and Mariah, who eventually had seven children. As a child, he attended an Islamic elementary school, later attending Catholic secondary schools. His father owned a lending library and enjoyed writing, leading Nugroho to start writing from a young age; he later quit writing because he felt his father to be too critical. He also enjoyed exploring, and would bathe in the Code River fed by the cold lahar runoffs from Mount Merapi; he notes that the sulfur, which was brought to the river by the lava, was good for his skin.

After graduating from Kolese Loyola high school in 1981, Nugroho went to Jakarta to study filmmaking at the Jakarta Institute of Arts (Institut Kesenian Jakarta, or IKJ), as well as law and politics at the University of Indonesia (UI). After studying under Teguh Karya, he graduated from the IKJ in 1985. He later graduated from UI in 1991. During his free time, Nugroho directed documentaries and short movies.

Nugroho made his directorial debut with 1991's Cinta dalam Sepotong Roti (Love in a Slice of Bread), overcoming bureaucracy caused by his refusal to join the Indonesian filmmakers' union. Cinta dalam Sepontong Roti was selected as Best Film in that year's Indonesian Film Festival.

After his mother's death in 2005, Nugroho decided to make a film about Javanese culture. He was later commissioned by the government of Austria to make a film for the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth. The result, Opera Jawa, was based on the Ramayana and produced by Simon Fields.

In 2008 Nugroho returned to theatre with The Iron Bed, adapted from Opera Jawa. The play was shown at the Zürcher Theater Spektakel in Zurich, Switzerland.