A little Obama steps into big shoes

4:00 AM Saturday May 22, 2010

Young Barry Obama is struggling with his pingpong shot.

Or rather, 12-year-old Hasan Faruq Ali is struggling to play left-handed in imitation of the character he is portraying in a new Indonesian film, Little Obama.

"Hasan has the walk, he has the posture of Barry," said Slamet Djanuadi, a consultant on the film and a childhood friend of President Barack Obama when he lived in Indonesia from 1967 to 1971.

"But Barry was a better pingpong player," he laughed, watching Hasan hit the ball off the table.

The movie, produced by Multivision Plus, Indonesia's largest production company, will premiere in Indonesia on June 17, the week of Obama's anticipated visit to the country....

The film tells the story of Obama's childhood in Jakarta, where he lived with his mother and Indonesian stepfather from age 6 to 10.

"It's about his friendships, his hobbies, just a childhood story," said screenwriter and co-director Damien Dematra.

"It's not about politics, it's just the story of a boy."

Hasan, who was born in America in Questa, New Mexico, but has lived in Indonesia since he was about 2 years old, was an obvious casting choice to play the young Obama.

Fluent in English and the Indonesian language, and the son of a white mother and African American father, Hasan fit the bill.

Improving his pingpong game was his focus during breaks on the fifth day of filming, earlier this week.

Day four's challenge was boxing, a childhood pursuit the President has said he learned from his stepfather and one that Hasan, with three years of karate training, felt more comfortable with.

"It feels great to play Obama," the novice actor said with a grin. "I was shy about it at first and there are some new difficulties that you have to work to get over, with intense practice, like this" - gesturing toward the pingpong table on the lawn - "and just learning the lines, practicing the scenes.

"But then it became easy and fun, especially acting as a very important character who left here to become President," Hasan said.

<...>The directors hope to finish shooting on June 3 in time for its scheduled premiere.

Everyone hopes Obama will watch it, including the directors, actors and the childhood neighbours he spent hours playing pingpong with.

As for Hasan, he said he carries two things from the movie: the inspiration to follow his dreams and Obama's smile.

"Before, I was a guy that kept to myself. But in acting, I'm trying to be like the guy in the pictures, who looks like he likes to be around friends and is always smiling," Hasan said. "And now, even when I'm not acting, I can't help it but I definitely notice I smile a lot more."

- AP  <abridged here: full article @ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/front-page-top-stories/news/article.cfm?c_id=698&objectid=10646663&pnum=0 >