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Roekiah is a Actor Indonesienne born on 1 january 1917 at Bandung (Indonesie)
Roekiah (Jawi:روكيه; pronounced Rukiah [ruˈkiah]; born 1917 – died 2 September 1945), often credited as Miss Roekiah, was an Indonesian kroncong singer and film actress. The daughter of two stage performers, she began her career at the age of seven; by 1932 she had become well known in Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia), as a singer and stage actress. Around this time she met Kartolo, whom she married in 1934. The two acted in the 1937 hit film Terang Boelan, in which Roekiah and Rd Mochtar played young lovers.
After the film's commercial success, Roekiah, Kartolo, and most of the cast and crew of Terang Boelan were signed to Tan's Film, first appearing for the company in their 1938 production Fatima. They acted together in two more films before Mochtar left the company in 1940; through these films, Roekiah and Mochtar became the colony's first on-screen couple. Mochtar's replacement, Rd Djoemala, acted with Roekiah in four films, although these were less successful. After the Japanese invaded the Indies in 1942, Roekiah took only one more film role before her death; most of her time was used entertaining Japanese forces.
During her life Roekiah was a fashion and beauty icon, featuring in advertisements and drawing comparisons to Dorothy Lamour and Janet Gaynor. Though most of the films in which she appeared are now lost, she has continued to be cited as a film pioneer, and a 1969 article stated that "in her time [Roekiah] reached a level of popularity which, one could say, has not been seen since". Of her five children with Kartolo, one – Rachmat Kartolo – entered acting.
Roekiah was born in Bandung, West Java, Dutch East Indies, in 1917 to Mohammad Ali and Ningsih, actors with the Opera Poesi Indra Bangsawan troupe; Ali was originally from Belitung, while Ningsih was of Sundanese descent and came from Cianjur. Though Roekiah learned acting mainly from her parents, she also studied the craft with other members of their troupe. The trio were constantly travelling, leaving Roekiah with no time for a formal education. By the mid-1920s they were with another troupe, the Opera Rochani.
Roekiah insisted on becoming an actress, despite the opposition of her family, and asked her mother for permission to perform on stage. Ningsih agreed, with one condition: Roekiah could only perform once. When the seven-year-old Roekiah took to the stage for the first time, Mohammad Ali – unaware of the agreement between his wife and daughter – rushed on stage and insisted that Roekiah stop singing. Afterwards, she refused to eat until her parents ultimately relented. Roekiah performed regularly afterwards with the troupe.
By 1932, the year she joined Palestina Opera in Batavia (modern-day Jakarta), Roekiah had become a well-known stage actress and singer of kroncong music (traditional music with Portuguese influences). She was admired not only for her voice, but her beauty. While with Palestina she met Kartolo, an actor, pianist, and songwriter with the troupe; they married later that year. The new couple soon left Palestina, then took a month's hiatus before joining the group Faroka on a tour in Singapore. They returned to the Indies in 1936.
Film career
Partnership with Rd Mochtar
In 1937 Roekiah made her first film appearance as the leading lady in Albert Balink's Terang Boelan (Full Moon). She and her co-star Rd Mochtar played two lovers who elope so that Roekiah's character need not marry an opium smuggler; Kartolo also had a small role. The film was a commercial success, earning over 200,000 Straits dollars during its international release; the Indonesian film historian Misbach Yusa Biran credited Roekiah as the "dynamite" which led to this positive reception.
Despite the success of Terang Boelan, its production company Algemeen Nederlandsch Indisch Filmsyndicaat stopped all work on fiction films. Now jobless and depressed after the death of her mother, according to journalist W. Imong, Roekiah "kept silent, constantly musing as if she were mentally disturbed". In order to distract his wife, Kartolo gathered the other cast members from Terang Boelan and established the Terang Boelan Troupe, which toured to Singapore to popular acclaim; this snapped Roekiah out of her melancholy. After the troupe returned to the Indies, most of the cast switched to Tan's Film, including Roekiah and Kartolo; the two also performed with the Lief Java kroncong group.
With Tan's, the Terang Boelan cast appeared in the 1938 hit Fatima, starring Roekiah and Rd Mochtar. The film, in which Roekiah played the title role – a young woman who must fend away the advances of a gang leader while falling in love with a fisherman (Rd Mochtar) – closely followed the formula established by Terang Boelan. Roekiah's acting received wide praise. One reviewer in the Batavia-based Het Nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië wrote that Roekiah's "sober personification of injustice in the Malay adat wedding captivates even the European spectator", while another, in the Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, found that Roekiah's performance was appreciated by everyone.
Fatima was a massive commercial hit, earning 200,000 gulden on a 7,000 gulden budget. Following the film's success, Tan's continued to cast Roekiah with Rd Mochtar. They became the colony's first on-screen celebrity couple and were termed the Indies' Charles Farrell–Janet Gaynor. The popularity of Roekiah–Rd Mochtar as a screen couple led other studios to follow with their own romantic pairings. The Teng Chun's Java Industrial Film, for instance, paired Mohamad Mochtar and Hadidjah in Alang-Alang (Grass, 1939).
In order to keep their new star, Tan's Film spent a large amount of money. Roekiah and Kartolo received a monthly holding fee of 150 gulden and 50 gulden respectively, twice as much as they had been given for Terang Boelan. They were also given a house in Tanah Rendah, Batavia. Roekiah and Kartolo, for their part, continued to act for the company; Kartolo often had small, comedic, roles, and Roekiah sang songs her husband had written. In 1939 they appeared together, again with Rd Mochtar as Roekiah's romantic foil, in the Zorro-influenced Gagak Item. Though not as successful as Roekiah's previous works, the film was still profitable. A reviewer for the Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad praised Roekiah's "demure" acting.
Roekiah's last film with Rd Mochtar, Siti Akbari, was released in 1940. Possibly inspired by a poem of the same name by Lie Kim Hok, the film featured Roekiah in the title role, portraying a long-suffering wife who remains faithful to her husband despite his infidelity. The film was well-received, earning 1,000 gulden on its first night in Surabaya, but was ultimately unable to return profits similar to Terang Boelan or Fatima.
Partnership with Djoemala
Amidst a wage dispute, Rd Mochtar left Tan's for their competitor Populair Films in 1940. Accordingly, the company began looking for a new on-screen partner for Roekiah. Kartolo asked an acquaintance, a tailor-cum-entrepreneur named Ismail Djoemala to take the part; though Djoemala had never acted before, he had sung with the group Malay Pemoeda in 1929. After Kartolo asked him six times to act for Tan's, Djoemala agreed. The company found the tall and good-looking Djoemala a suitable replacement, and hired him, giving him the stage name Rd Djoemala.
Roekiah and Djoemala made their first film together, Sorga Ka Toedjoe (Seventh Heaven), later that year. In the film, Roekiah played a young woman who, with the help of her lover, is able to reunite her blind aunt (Annie Landouw) with her estranged husband (Kartolo). This film was a commercial success, and the reviews were positive. One, for the Soerabaijasch Handelsblad, opined that Djoemala was as good as, if not better, than Rd Mochtar. Another review, for the Singapore Free Press, wrote that "Roekiah fills the part of the heroine in a most praiseworthy manner". In April of the following year Tan's released Roekihati, starring Roekiah as a young woman who goes to the city to earn money for her ailing family, ultimately marrying. Her performance received praise from the Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, which wrote that she had performed well in the difficult role.
Later in 1941 Roekiah and Djoemala completed Poesaka Terpendam (Buried Treasure), an action-filled film which followed two groups – the rightful heirs (Roekiah being one of them) and a band of criminals – in a race to find treasure buried in Banten. Roekiah and Djoemala worked on their final film together, Koeda Sembrani (The Enchanted Horse), in early 1942. In the film, adapted from One Thousand and One Nights, Roekiah took the role of Princess Shams-al-Nahar and was shown flying on a horse. The film was still incomplete when the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies began in March 1942, though it was screened by October 1943.
Altogether Roekiah and Djoemala acted in four films in two years. Biran argues this is evidence the company "wasted their treasure", as its competitors used their stars more often; Java Industrial Film, for instance, completed six films starring Moh. Mochtar in 1941 alone. Though Roekiah's films continued to be financial successes, they did not earn as large a profit as her earlier works.
Japanese occupation and death
Film production in the Indies declined after the Japanese occupation began in early 1942; the overlords forced all but one studio to close. In their place, the Japanese opened their own studio in the Indies, Nippon Eigasha, to produce propaganda for the war effort. Kartolo acted in the studio's only feature film, Berdjoang (Hope of the South), without Roekiah in 1943. After a hiatus of several years, Roekiah also acted for the studio, taking a role in the short Japanese propaganda film Ke Seberang (To the Other Side) in 1944. However, much of her time was spent touring Java with a theatrical company, entertaining Japanese troops.
Roekiah fell ill in February 1945, not long after completing Ke Seberang. Despite this, and a miscarriage, she was unable to rest; the Japanese forces insisted that she and Kartolo go on tour to Surabaya, in eastern Java. Upon her return to Jakarta, her condition became worse. After several months of treatment, she died on 2 September 1945, mere weeks after Indonesia proclaimed its independence. Roekiah was buried in Kober Hulu, Jatinegara, Jakarta. Her funeral was attended by several luminaries, including the Minister of Education Ki Hajar Dewantara.
Source : Wikidata
Roekiah
Nationality Indonesie
Birth 1 january 1917 at Bandung (Indonesie)
Death 2 september 1945 (at 28 years) at Jakarta (Indonesie)
Birth 1 january 1917 at Bandung (Indonesie)
Death 2 september 1945 (at 28 years) at Jakarta (Indonesie)
After the film's commercial success, Roekiah, Kartolo, and most of the cast and crew of Terang Boelan were signed to Tan's Film, first appearing for the company in their 1938 production Fatima. They acted together in two more films before Mochtar left the company in 1940; through these films, Roekiah and Mochtar became the colony's first on-screen couple. Mochtar's replacement, Rd Djoemala, acted with Roekiah in four films, although these were less successful. After the Japanese invaded the Indies in 1942, Roekiah took only one more film role before her death; most of her time was used entertaining Japanese forces.
During her life Roekiah was a fashion and beauty icon, featuring in advertisements and drawing comparisons to Dorothy Lamour and Janet Gaynor. Though most of the films in which she appeared are now lost, she has continued to be cited as a film pioneer, and a 1969 article stated that "in her time [Roekiah] reached a level of popularity which, one could say, has not been seen since". Of her five children with Kartolo, one – Rachmat Kartolo – entered acting.
Biography
Early lifeRoekiah was born in Bandung, West Java, Dutch East Indies, in 1917 to Mohammad Ali and Ningsih, actors with the Opera Poesi Indra Bangsawan troupe; Ali was originally from Belitung, while Ningsih was of Sundanese descent and came from Cianjur. Though Roekiah learned acting mainly from her parents, she also studied the craft with other members of their troupe. The trio were constantly travelling, leaving Roekiah with no time for a formal education. By the mid-1920s they were with another troupe, the Opera Rochani.
Roekiah insisted on becoming an actress, despite the opposition of her family, and asked her mother for permission to perform on stage. Ningsih agreed, with one condition: Roekiah could only perform once. When the seven-year-old Roekiah took to the stage for the first time, Mohammad Ali – unaware of the agreement between his wife and daughter – rushed on stage and insisted that Roekiah stop singing. Afterwards, she refused to eat until her parents ultimately relented. Roekiah performed regularly afterwards with the troupe.
By 1932, the year she joined Palestina Opera in Batavia (modern-day Jakarta), Roekiah had become a well-known stage actress and singer of kroncong music (traditional music with Portuguese influences). She was admired not only for her voice, but her beauty. While with Palestina she met Kartolo, an actor, pianist, and songwriter with the troupe; they married later that year. The new couple soon left Palestina, then took a month's hiatus before joining the group Faroka on a tour in Singapore. They returned to the Indies in 1936.
Film career
Partnership with Rd Mochtar
In 1937 Roekiah made her first film appearance as the leading lady in Albert Balink's Terang Boelan (Full Moon). She and her co-star Rd Mochtar played two lovers who elope so that Roekiah's character need not marry an opium smuggler; Kartolo also had a small role. The film was a commercial success, earning over 200,000 Straits dollars during its international release; the Indonesian film historian Misbach Yusa Biran credited Roekiah as the "dynamite" which led to this positive reception.
Despite the success of Terang Boelan, its production company Algemeen Nederlandsch Indisch Filmsyndicaat stopped all work on fiction films. Now jobless and depressed after the death of her mother, according to journalist W. Imong, Roekiah "kept silent, constantly musing as if she were mentally disturbed". In order to distract his wife, Kartolo gathered the other cast members from Terang Boelan and established the Terang Boelan Troupe, which toured to Singapore to popular acclaim; this snapped Roekiah out of her melancholy. After the troupe returned to the Indies, most of the cast switched to Tan's Film, including Roekiah and Kartolo; the two also performed with the Lief Java kroncong group.
With Tan's, the Terang Boelan cast appeared in the 1938 hit Fatima, starring Roekiah and Rd Mochtar. The film, in which Roekiah played the title role – a young woman who must fend away the advances of a gang leader while falling in love with a fisherman (Rd Mochtar) – closely followed the formula established by Terang Boelan. Roekiah's acting received wide praise. One reviewer in the Batavia-based Het Nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië wrote that Roekiah's "sober personification of injustice in the Malay adat wedding captivates even the European spectator", while another, in the Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, found that Roekiah's performance was appreciated by everyone.
Fatima was a massive commercial hit, earning 200,000 gulden on a 7,000 gulden budget. Following the film's success, Tan's continued to cast Roekiah with Rd Mochtar. They became the colony's first on-screen celebrity couple and were termed the Indies' Charles Farrell–Janet Gaynor. The popularity of Roekiah–Rd Mochtar as a screen couple led other studios to follow with their own romantic pairings. The Teng Chun's Java Industrial Film, for instance, paired Mohamad Mochtar and Hadidjah in Alang-Alang (Grass, 1939).
In order to keep their new star, Tan's Film spent a large amount of money. Roekiah and Kartolo received a monthly holding fee of 150 gulden and 50 gulden respectively, twice as much as they had been given for Terang Boelan. They were also given a house in Tanah Rendah, Batavia. Roekiah and Kartolo, for their part, continued to act for the company; Kartolo often had small, comedic, roles, and Roekiah sang songs her husband had written. In 1939 they appeared together, again with Rd Mochtar as Roekiah's romantic foil, in the Zorro-influenced Gagak Item. Though not as successful as Roekiah's previous works, the film was still profitable. A reviewer for the Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad praised Roekiah's "demure" acting.
Roekiah's last film with Rd Mochtar, Siti Akbari, was released in 1940. Possibly inspired by a poem of the same name by Lie Kim Hok, the film featured Roekiah in the title role, portraying a long-suffering wife who remains faithful to her husband despite his infidelity. The film was well-received, earning 1,000 gulden on its first night in Surabaya, but was ultimately unable to return profits similar to Terang Boelan or Fatima.
Partnership with Djoemala
Amidst a wage dispute, Rd Mochtar left Tan's for their competitor Populair Films in 1940. Accordingly, the company began looking for a new on-screen partner for Roekiah. Kartolo asked an acquaintance, a tailor-cum-entrepreneur named Ismail Djoemala to take the part; though Djoemala had never acted before, he had sung with the group Malay Pemoeda in 1929. After Kartolo asked him six times to act for Tan's, Djoemala agreed. The company found the tall and good-looking Djoemala a suitable replacement, and hired him, giving him the stage name Rd Djoemala.
Roekiah and Djoemala made their first film together, Sorga Ka Toedjoe (Seventh Heaven), later that year. In the film, Roekiah played a young woman who, with the help of her lover, is able to reunite her blind aunt (Annie Landouw) with her estranged husband (Kartolo). This film was a commercial success, and the reviews were positive. One, for the Soerabaijasch Handelsblad, opined that Djoemala was as good as, if not better, than Rd Mochtar. Another review, for the Singapore Free Press, wrote that "Roekiah fills the part of the heroine in a most praiseworthy manner". In April of the following year Tan's released Roekihati, starring Roekiah as a young woman who goes to the city to earn money for her ailing family, ultimately marrying. Her performance received praise from the Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, which wrote that she had performed well in the difficult role.
Later in 1941 Roekiah and Djoemala completed Poesaka Terpendam (Buried Treasure), an action-filled film which followed two groups – the rightful heirs (Roekiah being one of them) and a band of criminals – in a race to find treasure buried in Banten. Roekiah and Djoemala worked on their final film together, Koeda Sembrani (The Enchanted Horse), in early 1942. In the film, adapted from One Thousand and One Nights, Roekiah took the role of Princess Shams-al-Nahar and was shown flying on a horse. The film was still incomplete when the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies began in March 1942, though it was screened by October 1943.
Altogether Roekiah and Djoemala acted in four films in two years. Biran argues this is evidence the company "wasted their treasure", as its competitors used their stars more often; Java Industrial Film, for instance, completed six films starring Moh. Mochtar in 1941 alone. Though Roekiah's films continued to be financial successes, they did not earn as large a profit as her earlier works.
Japanese occupation and death
Film production in the Indies declined after the Japanese occupation began in early 1942; the overlords forced all but one studio to close. In their place, the Japanese opened their own studio in the Indies, Nippon Eigasha, to produce propaganda for the war effort. Kartolo acted in the studio's only feature film, Berdjoang (Hope of the South), without Roekiah in 1943. After a hiatus of several years, Roekiah also acted for the studio, taking a role in the short Japanese propaganda film Ke Seberang (To the Other Side) in 1944. However, much of her time was spent touring Java with a theatrical company, entertaining Japanese troops.
Roekiah fell ill in February 1945, not long after completing Ke Seberang. Despite this, and a miscarriage, she was unable to rest; the Japanese forces insisted that she and Kartolo go on tour to Surabaya, in eastern Java. Upon her return to Jakarta, her condition became worse. After several months of treatment, she died on 2 September 1945, mere weeks after Indonesia proclaimed its independence. Roekiah was buried in Kober Hulu, Jatinegara, Jakarta. Her funeral was attended by several luminaries, including the Minister of Education Ki Hajar Dewantara.
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Filmography of Roekiah (8 films)
Actress
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Roekihati (1940)
Actors Roekiah, Kartolo
The village girl Roekihati (Roekiah) goes to the city to find money so she can care for her ailing mother and father. She first works at the home of a rich playboy before going to become a singer at a restaurant; both of these jobs fail miserably. Eventually she marries Mansoer (Rd. Djoemala), a coupling to which Mansoer's father objects vehemently. With his family and friends urging him on, Mansoer begins to fall for a city girl named Aminah, ignoring Roekihati. However, when Mansoer sees that Roekihati is faithfully attending to him despite how he treats her he decides that he was wrong and returns to her.
Siti Akbari (1940)
Actors Roekiah, Rd Mochtar, Kartolo, Annie Landouw
Siti Akbari (Roekiah) is living happily with her husband. When he begins to wander she stays faithful and he eventually comes back to her.
Sorga Ka Toedjoe (1940)
Actors Roekiah, Annie Landouw, Kartolo
Rasminah (Roekiah) is living with her blind aunt Hadidjah (Annie Landouw) in Puncak, a village south-east of Buitenzorg (now Bogor). Hadidjah has been separated from her husband, Kasimin, for several years, ever since she accused him of adultery. Although she regretted the incident almost immediately, it was too late; a corpse resembling Kasimin was found floating in a river, and in her hurry to see the body Hadidjah was struck by a car, blinding her. Now she sings the kroncong song "Sorga Ka Toedjoe", which Kasimin declared to be a symbol of his love, at 5 p.m. every day. Unknown to Hadidjah, Kasimin (Kartolo) is alive and well; he also sings "Sorga Ka Toedjoe" every day at the same time.
Poesaka Terpendam (1940)
Actors Roekiah, Kartolo
Two young men, Agoes and Badjoel, travel from Palembang to West Java and are told of the beauty of two sisters, Zaenab and Djoeleha, who live in Cicadas village with their father. The friends decide to visit Cicadas. Meanwhile, a local bandit leader named Ramelan has asked for Zaenab's hand in marriage. She and her father Ardi refuse, and Ramelan is forced to leave.
Fatima (1938)
Actors Roekiah, Rd Mochtar, Kartolo
Fatima (Roekiah) is in love with Idris (Rd Mochtar), the son of a poor fisherman on the island of Motaro. One day, the rich youth Ali (ET Effendi) comes to the island and tries to steal Fatima's heart. She, however, is unwilling to receive him and gives his gifts to Idris, so that the latter can sell them. Ultimately it is revealed that Ali is the leader of a gang, and the police trace him through a stolen ring he had given Fatima.
Terang Bulan (1937)
Directed by Albert Balink
Genres Drama
Actors Rd Mochtar, Roekiah, Kartolo, Dhalia
Rohaya (Roekiah) must separate from her lover, Kasim (Rd Mochtar), so that she can marry her father's choice, the disreputable but rich Musa (Eddie T. Effendi). The night before the wedding, Kasim plays the song "Terang Boelan" for Rohaya, and they agree to elope. The following day, Rohaya and Kasim escape from Sawoba Island to Malacca, where Kasim begins work at a drydock and Rohaya keeps busy as a housewife. They discover that Kasim's old friend, Dullah (Kartolo), has lived in Malacca for some time.