Peni Candra Rini with Andy McGraw: Setan Jawa

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | Indonesian director and activist Garin Nugroho’s Setan Jawa is a silent film with a score created by celebrated Indonesian composer and singer, Peni Candra Rini. Here, Candra Rini and multi-instrumentalist Andy McGraw will perform the score live while the film is screened. 

In Setan Jawa, Setio, a young poor man, falls in love with Asih, a beautiful aristocrat—but the woman’s family rejects his marriage proposal. Despairing, he makes a deal with the devil so he can spend the rest of his life with the woman he loves, but his pact comes at a price.

The film explores Indonesia’s pre-orthodox Islamic stories of the seven deals man makes with the devil in order to gain wealth, and the live score dramatically underpins the mysticism and sensuality of Nugroho’s tale of love and sacrifice. Setan Jawa evokes Javanese mythology through a lens of contemporary horror, inspired by the perennial silent film classic, Murnau’s Nosferatu. 

Peni Candra Runi is an extraordinary singer, master of several traditional forms, and regarded as one of Indonesia’s most daring young composers. Nugroho is a pioneer of Indonesian cinema represented in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, and beyond. 

Peni Candra Rini (PhD) is a renowned Javanese singer, composer, and educator. The Kronos Quartet has described her as “one of the world’s greatest singers.” She is a master of several traditional forms and is regarded as one of Indonesia’s most daring young composers, one of only a handful of female composers in the majority Muslim nation. Strongly committed to preserving and sharing the musical traditions of her country, she has performed extensively internationally, including several world tours as the featured singer for Robert Wilson’s I La Galigo. 

Andy McGraw received his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University in 2005. Dr. McGraw has published extensively on Southeast Asian music, music and ethics, and rhythmic analysis. He has written two monographs for Oxford University Press and has co-edited monographs on Cornell University Press and Smithsonian. He is an active performer and directs a gamelan orchestra for the Richmond community.