MORE than three million Indonesians have flocked to cinemas in the last five weeks to watch the latest blockbuster, Laskar Pelangi or Rainbow Warriors.
Despite its title, it is not an action movie. The film that is lighting up the screens is an inspiring tale of a group of students determined to get an education against all odds.
Based on a novel of the same name by IT instructor Andrea Hirata Seman and produced by the award-winning Ms Mira Lesmana, it focuses on the deteriorating state of Indonesia's school system and the abject poverty in the country.
'This movie is a reminder to the political elite of the plight of poor children living on the fringes who have to struggle to earn their basic rights to education,' said Ms Mira, Indonesia's most prominent film producer.
Laskar Pelangi tells the true story of 10 poor children, including Andrea, who struggled to get basic schooling at a dilapidated elementary school on Belitung island in Sumatra.
The kids are called warriors because they put up a persistent fight to overcome a myriad of obstacles in pursuit of their dreams and right to basic schooling.
The school, founded by the Muhammadiyah Islamic organisation, was scheduled to be demolished because of its decrepit condition and dwindling student enrolment.
But the pupils - whose parents were poor fishermen, farmers and lowly paid workers of tin mining companies - cycled miles to get to the school because there was no public transport on the island.
One pupil even cycled three hours each day through jungle and crocodile-infested swamps just to get to his classes.
It was their dogged determination and that of the school's only two staff - a principal and a teacher - that kept the school open for five years until all 10 pupils completed their elementary schooling. Many have even gone on to successful careers.
Thanks to the values inculcated by the teachers, who taught him not to give up hope and to strive in pursuit of knowledge, the author himself earned a scholarship to study at Sorbonne University in Paris.
While their struggles took place in the 1970s, the message is just as meaningful today, if not more so.
Educationists here say it is now even more difficult for children in poor regions to get schooling.
Their dilemma has been compounded by the dilapidated school buildings, unqualified teachers and lack of financial assistance for poor schoolchildren.
The appalling condition of some of Indonesia's schools is the result of years of lack of funding for the education sector. Some are literally collapsing around the students and the teachers - just like the one in the movie.
Although Indonesia's Constitution requires that 20 per cent of the state budget be set aside for education, only 10 per cent has been set aside every year.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who invited street children to watch the movie last month, has promised to boost the budget to 20 per cent beginning next year.
'Hopefully, the movie will remind our policymakers about their duty to provide education for all Indonesian children,' said Ms Mira.
Because of the lack of funding, school buildings have not been properly maintained. Dr Suyanto, the Education Ministry's director-general for primary and secondary schools, told The Straits Times that a government survey of 171,402 primary and secondary schools across the country in 2003 found that 50.5 per cent of them were in bad shape - and getting worse.
'Since then, we have been pumping in trillions of rupiah each year to repair the schools so that today only 12.6 per cent of our school buildings are still in bad condition,' he said.
Dr Suyanto saw the movie and admitted that many families in the far-flung archipelago still face the same dilemma shown, but the government is taking action.
'To help the poor villagers in remote areas, we build boarding schools and integrated primary and secondary schools that operate under one roof so that pupils don't have to travel out of their villages," he said.
Education is also getting expensive for many Indonesian families. Up to half an average family's income can go to education, according to one estimate. It costs at least 1.8 million rupiah (S$243) a year to send a child to primary school and two million and four million rupiah for junior and high school students respectively.
The government has started a subsidy scheme of 254,000 rupiah per pupil a year, where the money is distributed via the schools. But critics say that there have been reports of rampant misuse of funds and corruption in schools.
In dealing with problems of unqualified teachers, the government is encouraging educators to go for professional training by offering them higher salaries than their current pay of two million rupiah a month after they get their certificates.
After seeing Laskar Pelangi, school teacher Muhammad Farid of Surabaya summed it all up.
In an Internet posting he said: 'We need to look at the 28 million school-going children who are not being given proper schooling because they still live in poverty.'
WAKE-UP CALL
'This movie is a reminder to the political elite of the plight of poor children living on the fringes who have to struggle to earn their basic rights to education.'
Producer Mira Lesmana on the movie Laskar Pelangi. Above, pupils on an outing with their teacher in a scene from the movie
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