ABSTRACT
Film becomes a media that is currently still in demand by the public in understanding phenomena that have and even are happening based on real or fictional stories. The Kartini film directed by Hanung Bramantyo and played by Dian Sastrowardoyo as Kartini presents a true story based on history to the public. This film depicts 19th-century women who cannot be free and unequal to men. But the interesting thing is, Kartini’s figure is described as a woman who is not only an emancipation figure, but also has a revolutionary spirit. This study aims to find out how the Kartini film actually is able to represent gender equality for the figure of women who are in support of the Javanese tradition. The concept of gender equality is the basis of this research. Gender is a differentiator of roles, functions, status and responsibilities between men and women as a result of social and cultural construction that is created through a process of socialization from one generation to another. This study uses Sara Mills discourse analysis which focuses on discourse on feminism; how women are shown in the text, in this case the Hanung Bramantyo version of Kartini. The results of this study show how the actual work of fiction films adapted from a real event, against the background of the Javanese tradition that is full of rules and conservatives, is able to bring up the figure of women who have an awareness of gender equality.
Keywords: Representation, gender equality, Javanese tradition, kartini films, discourse analysis sara mills