Purbararang, the elder sister, teases Purbasari about the latter's lover, a lutung named Guru Minang; Purbarang's boyfriend, Indrajaya, is a handsome human.

[1][2] The first showing of films in the Dutch East Indies was in 1900,[3] and over the next twenty years foreign productions – generally from the United States – were imported and shown throughout the country.

[6] Under pressure from imported works, in 1926 N.V. Java Film, a production house based in Batavia (modern-day Jakarta) which had previously produced a single documentary, Inlanders op de Krokodillenjacht (Native Crocodile Hunters), chose to make a feature film based on the Sundanese folktale Lutung Kasarung.

The company's owner, L. Heuveldorp served as director and producer, while its laboratory head George Krugers handled cinematography and processing.

[7] Among the cast were children of Wiranatakusumah V, the regent of Bandung;[1] he had agreed to help fund the film to promote Sundanese culture,[9] and had previously brought the story to the stage.

"[18] The Indonesian film historian Misbach Yusa Biran wrote that Loetoeng Kasaroeng would have been poorly received outside of West Java, owing to Sundanese culture and dance not being considered interesting to other ethnic groups, particularly the Javanese.

[14] William van der Heide, a lecturer on film studies at the University of Newcastle in Australia, notes that the tendency of European filmmakers to depict natives as primitives may also have influenced the poor ticket sales.

[21] However, the first truly Indonesian film is considered to be Usmar Ismail's Darah dan Doa (The Long March) in 1950,[22][23] released after the Dutch recognised Indonesia's independence in 1949.