Pareh

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Pareh (Rice) is a 1936 film from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Directed by Albert Balink and Mannus Franken, it follows a forbidden romance between Mahmud, a fisherman, and Wagini, the daughter of a farmer. Their love faces trouble because of local superstition, but with help from their village, they ultimately join together.

Production was ambitious. Balink began work in 1934 with the Wong brothers as cinematographers. They raised a large budget for the time—75,000 gulden—much more than typical local films. Most of the cast were non-professionals, including Mochtar and Soekarsih. Franken, a Dutch filmmaker, contributed ethnographic shots to show local culture. The movie was shot in the Indies and edited in the Netherlands, where voices were dubbed and the soundtrack was redone with European-style music due to recording limitations.

Pareh premiered in the Netherlands on 20 November 1936 and was also shown in the Indies. It received strong praise from European audiences and critics, but native audiences in the Indies did not embrace it, and the producers went bankrupt. Despite this, the film helped shift Dutch East Indies cinema toward stories aimed at local audiences and improved overall production quality. Balink later found success with Terang Boelan (1937).

Film historians regard Pareh as one of the two most important Dutch East Indies films of the 1930s, the other being Terang Boelan. Its production and reception influenced how local films were made, encouraging better sound, more modern stories, and attention to Indonesian culture.