Islamic-themed Films in Contemporary Indonesia: Commodified Religion or Islamization?

Much of the discussion of Islamic content in recent Indonesian films revolves around the idea of religious commodification. Islamic content in films such as Ayat-Ayat Cinta (literally: Love Verses, Dir. Hanung Bramantyo, 2007) is seen merely as the commodification of religion by a mass produced pop cultural form. Islam is commodified when the faith and its symbols are turned into “a commodity capable of being bought and sold for profit” (Fealy, 2007:17). Few have seen Islamic-themed films in the broader context of sociopolitico cultural change of Islam in Indonesia (see Heryanto, forthcoming, for example), because there was little serious academic interest in the religion-film interface until a decade ago (Wright, 2007:11).