George Krugers

His 1930 film Karnadi Anemer Bangkong is thought to be the first talkie in the cinema of the Indies, but was a commercial failure as the majority Sundanese audience considered it insulting.

[12] The first talkies shown in the Indies, Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 and The Rainbow Man (both 1929), came from the United States and were screened in late 1929.

[10] The comedy, made with a single system camera that Krugers had obtained with the help of his Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers membership, is generally thought the first locally produced talkie released in the country,[14] but had poor technical quality.

[15] It was a critical failure, as the majority Sundanese audience felt that they were being insulted; contemporary director Joshua Wong suggested that this poor reception was partly owing to the main character eating a frog, something which is forbidden for Muslims.

[10] Following this failure, Krugers made the documentary Atma De Vischer (1931), which followed Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Hendrik on a trip through the Hague,[10] before being signed to Tan's Film.

[19] This situation was created by the Great Depression, which had led to the Dutch East Indies government collecting higher taxes, advertisers asking for more money, and cinemas selling tickets at lower prices; this ensured that there was a very low profit margin for local films.