Obama film shows first in Indonesia

A film about US President Barack Obama's childhood days in Indonesia premiered in Jakarta Wednesday, showing a very different perspective on the man in the White House.

The film, "Obama Anak Menteng" or "Obama, the Menteng Kid," is set in the upscale Jakarta neighborhood of Menteng, where Obama lived from 1967 to 1971 with his mother and Indonesian stepfather.

Co-director Damien Dematra said it shows the US president in a light that Americans might find strange.

"Viewers, especially Westerners, will see a different world. They'll see Obama eating chicken satay, not hamburgers. They'll see his neighbors and friends wearing checkered sarongs and Muslim caps," he told AFP.

Even so, producers skirted controversy surrounding the extent that Islam influenced Obama's early years in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.

A scene showing Obama, who is Christian, praying like a Muslim, was dropped, as it was deemed "too political," Dematra said.

Based on his interviews with Obama's surviving neighbors and friends in the Indonesian capital, Dematra claims the film is "60 percent fact and 40 percent fiction."

AFP