Tema Madani 2026: Rimpang (Rhizome), Spreading, Healing
1 n tuber (root) that branches like fingers (about turmeric, ginger); rhizome; 2 a widely spaced (about toes).
a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes.
Rhizome, Cinema, Culture, Identity
Madani Fest 2026 as a cultural festival based on Islamic world cinema carries the theme of Rimpang/Rhizome.
This theme refers to the nature of urban development, such as Jakarta, which constructs space and life in a sprawling, interwoven manner. It also signifies the non-linear, non-hierarchical nature of alternative scholarship as a cultural modality in a post-genocide, multipolar world that is no longer centered on the West.
This word has no exact equivalent in Arabic. Some dictionaries refer to the meaning of "root", which in modern Arabic, for example, in botany, Rhizome is absorbed into الجِذْمُور (Al-Jidhmur). There is also the word ساق أرضية (Saq Ardiyyah) which means "underground stem". In classical and literary Arabic, there are two metaphorical words with similar meanings: أصل (Ashl), which is the origin of the word "asli" in Indonesian, and عرق (Irq), which means "vein" and "root".
In the Quran, there is no equivalent word for rhizome, but there is a plant that is included in one type of rhizome, namely ginger, or زنجبيل (Zanjabil), QS. Al-Insan: 17, a heavenly drink. Ginger, like turmeric and various herbal ingredients, is traditionally considered to have health benefits.
زَنجَبِيلًا
And they will be given there to drink a cup of which the mixture is of ginger, called zanjabil.
QS. Al-Insan: 17
Three Arabic terms spanning roots, veins, and origins across the journey of rhizome:
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Explore the film curation and public discourses designed in the rhizomatic spirit, or learn more about the festival.