Jero Tapakan series
A two part series by Linda Connor, Patsy Asch, and Timothy Asch
color, 77 min, 1979-1982
Jero Tapakan, a spirit medium in a small, central Balinese village, consults with a group of clients in her shrinehouse. An introduction precedes the main seance, providing a visual impression of a seance and background information on the medium and her profession. The clients wish to contact the spirit of their dead son to discover the cause of his death and his wishes for his cremation ceremony. Jero is possessed several times in the course of the seance: first by a protective houseyard deity who demands propitiary offerings that had previously been overlooked; then by the spirit of the petitioner's deceased father, who requests further offerings to ease his path to the other world; and finally by the spirit of the son. In an emotional scene the son's spirit reveals the cause of his premature death (sorcery) and instructions for his forthcoming cremation. Between each possession the medium converses with her clients, clarifying vague points in the often ambiguous trance speech.
Jero Tapakan Study Guide in PDF
films in the Jero Tapakan series:A Balinese Trance Seance w/Jero on Jero: A Balinese Trance Seance Observed
Medium is the Masseuse: A Balinese Massage w/Jero Tapakan