The animation movie ‘Si Warik the Movie: Ladang Terakhir’ had successfully been curated and played at The Student World Impact Film Festival (SWIFF) 2023. This movie was made by the students and the professors of the Applied Animation Major at Universitas Dian Nuswantoro (Udinus) Semarang. The theme of ‘Si Warik the Movie: Ladang Terakhir’ revolved around the local wisdom of warak, Semarang.

SWIFF itself is one of the biggest student movie festivals on Earth. This movie festival will be open from June 18th to June 25th, 2023. Successfully curated movies will be showcased online. SWIFF has helped more than 10.000 film creators from 120 different countries annually to improve their careers and gain exposure in the entertainment industry. 

The head of the Animation Major of Udinus, Dr. Khafiizh Hastuti, M.Kom said that she was proud of the accomplishment. She highlighted that there were 13.000 movies from 120 countries in that festival, and ‘Si Warik’ was one of them. Si Warik Animation would later be featured at SWIFF 2023. Last February, ‘Si Warik: The Movie’ had also been screened in many cinemas in both Semarang and Jakarta. Additionally, The Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Mendikbud Ristek), Nadiem Makarim himself had watched this animation movie.

“I am proud of this short movie created by the youths of our nation, specifically by the Animation Major of Udinus for having been successfully curated in such a prestigious movie festival”, Khafiizh said.

Khafiizh explained that 21 Animation Major students were involved in the making process of this movie, alongside six alumni and the Animation Major’s professors as supervisors. The students were involved in every production process which consists of pre-production and 2D animation, production and 3D animation, and post-production process. Not only did the production involve the students, but it also involved three animators from the Manimonki Studio as industrial partners.

“Manimonki Studio’s role was to share their knowledge both in technicality and in production management, ensuring that the movie met the industry standards and visual quality,” she explained.

This 20-minute 3D movie tells a story of a pair of friends, Warik and Dian. They are trying to save the last field from a menacing black smoke creature. This movie was adapted from a Semarang cultural icon namely, Warak Ngendhog. Not only that, but this movie also had tons of references to Semarang’s local culture. 

The film’s producer, Nita Virena Nathania who was also one of the lecturers of the Animation Major of Udinus, said that this movie aimed to be a show for kids. Not only that, but the production of this movie also had a specific purpose to gain knowledge and to bring educational messages to Indonesian children.

The essence of making this movie is in the slogan ‘Petualangan Warak Cilik Membawa Pesan Pendidikan’. In the movie, Nita revealed a message aimed at youths to conserve nature.

“In this mini-movie, we encourage the young audience to conserve nature. Moreover, we also hope that this movie will educate children and instill scientific knowledge, etc,” said Nita. (Humas Udinus/Alex. Foto: Humas Udinus)