As a result, Soeriaatmadja rewrote the character of Cahaya for her. During script development, Raihaanun, who is Soeriaatmadja's wife, expressed interest in the film. He started development on the script in 2011.
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Soeriaatmadja first came up with an idea for the film in 2003, when he saw a transgender woman and a veiled woman talking on the side of a street. Raihaanun as Cahaya, a devout 19-year old Muslim girl.Donny Damara as Syaiful/Ipuy, Cahaya's transgender father.The innocent Cahaya is crushed at her father's choices Ipuy is horrified to see the daughter he willfully left behind. In the initial minutes after encountering each other, both are shocked at the turn of evens. When she locates Ipuy (Damara), she finds a transvestite prostitute plying her trade on the streets. Cahaya, naturally, goes looking for an office building or store. When they finally figure out she means Ipuy, they point her in the right direction and say he's “working” around Taman Lawang (Jakarta's infamous spot for transgender sex workers). Asking neighbors and shopkeepers in the area he lives in for Syaiful gets her blank stares in return.
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Armed with a piece of notepaper and a few rupiah, she's in the city on a search for the father she hasn't seen since she was four.
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Ĭahaya arrives in Jakarta from what can be assumed is her small town home just as the sun is setting. The story unfolds over that one night as they walk the streets of Jakarta and explains how the encounter changes their lives, as they learn about love, loss and redemption. Lovely Man tells the story of Cahaya, a 19-year-old girl with strong Islamic values, who discovers that her long lost father is a transgender woman working on the streets of Jakarta.