One of the challenges in the translation process is translating culture-specific
terms, which are closely rooted in the culture of the source language and may not
have direct equivalents in the target language. The Indonesian documentary film
Semesta contains numerous Indonesian cultural terms related to ecology, religious
beliefs, customs, traditions, social practices, and material culture, which are
presented to non-Indonesian-speaking audiences through English subtitles. This
study aims to identify and classify the Indonesian cultural terms found in the
documentary film Semesta and to assess the accuracy of their English subtitle
translations. This research employed a descriptive qualitative approach. The data
consisted of Indonesian cultural terms found in the dialogue and narration of the
documentary and their corresponding English subtitle translations. The findings
revealed 65 Indonesian cultural terms in the documentary. The most frequently
occurring category was Organizations, Customs, Activities, Procedures,
Concepts, with 27 terms (41.54%), followed by Ecology, with 24 terms (36.92%),
Social Culture, with 7 terms (10.77%), Material Culture, with 4 terms (6.15%),
and Gestures and Habits, with 3 terms (4.62%). Regarding translation accuracy,
49 terms (75.38%) were categorized as accurate, 13 terms (20.00%) as less
accurate, and 3 terms (4.62%) as inaccurate. The findings indicate that the
majority of the cultural terms were translated accurately, demonstrating that the
English subtitles generally succeeded in conveying the meanings of Indonesian
cultural terms to the target audience. Nevertheless, some translations were less
accurate or inaccurate, particularly when the cultural terms contained specific
religious, traditional, or contextual meanings. The study concludes that
translating Indonesian cultural terms in audiovisual media requires attention not
only to their linguistic meanings but also to their cultural and contextual
significance.