Five students from the French Language and Literature Program, UGM Faculty of Cultural Sciences (FIB UGM), have completed the creation of subtitles for three French-language films: Les 2 Alfred, Divertimento, and La Page Blanche.
The five students are Monalisa Christine, Andrea Yudistira Sutisno, Silvester Taffarel Irza E. D., Az Zahra Alifa Fernanta, and Nanda Chrisvina Jiwanda Fidelia. They carried out a program translating subtitles from French to Indonesian under Dr. Merry Andriani, a French Language and Literature lecturer.
Dr. Andriani stated that the subtitle writing activity is part of the Internal MBKM Study Program in the French Language and Literature Program. The students’ involvement stems from the abundance of French films available, yet very few with Indonesian subtitles.
“This student team collaborated with various parties to ensure the smoothness and efficiency of the subtitle creation for these films,” said Dr. Andriani in a statement to the press on Tuesday (Sep. 17).
The collaboration included groups such as IFI Jakarta and IFrance. IFI Jakarta trained the student team on translating film subtitles for inclusion in the films. IFrance provided easier access to films for context understanding during the translation process.
“IFrance prepared the films to be ready for screening,” explained Nanda Chrisvina Jiwanda Fidelia, one of the participating students in the program.
The team faced challenges while creating these subtitles, such as the difficulty of finding equivalent words in French and Indonesian. However, they remained enthusiastic about completing the film subtitles.
“Our initial motivation was to fulfill the internship credits. But along the way, we became very enthusiastic about finishing this film so it could be screened for many viewers. There is a certain satisfaction in knowing that our efforts can entertain many people watching this film,” Fidelia expressed.
One of their works, the subtitles for the film Divertimento, were screened at the IFI Yogyakarta on Thursday (Sep. 12) evening.
The Director of IFI, François Dabin, attended the film screening and expressed his hopes during an interview session that they could collectively improve the program’s implementation and expand it into other fields.
“Certainly, there are still many aspects of this program that we can enhance, but I hope that this collaboration will be strengthened and expanded, perhaps beyond films and literary works, opening opportunities for collaborations in other fields with France,” explained Dabin.
Dabin noted that the French film subtitle writing program further encourages cultural exchange activities between France and Indonesia, strengthening the partnership between the two countries.
Author: Hanif
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Post-editor: Afif