09-26-2020, 09:18 AM
Marlina is a young woman living in a remote hut where she raises some livestock. One day a group of men descend on her place, confiscate all her livestock and, yeah, the R word enters the picture. But this is directed by a woman, Mouly Surya, and the scene is neither explicit nor exploitive.
While all of this is going on, Marlina's husband sits in the room. He sits in the shadows near the wall, posed like Munch's "The Scream", only with eyes and mouth closed. He's mummified, you see, having died recently, and I guess it's an Indonesian cultural thing, to stuff dead relatives and decorate your house with them.
Anyway, the men knew that Marlina was recently widowed and saw her as an easy target.
Only she isn't, not entirely. Though powerless and far out-numbered, she keeps her wits about her, and without going the testosterone route, she manages to escape most of the personal abuse. But still, things happen, and afterwards she's determined to get justice. That means taking the "evidence" to a police station far away, using various modes of transportation (some of them objecting vigorously to the "evidence" she open-carries). Further, some of the gang are hot on her tail, and using faster modes of travel.
Her only ally through this whole ordeal is Novi, who has problems of her own. She's pregnant and way overdue, which her cruel husband sees as evidence that she's been sleeping around.
I found this film fascinating. Though slow-moving, it's peppered with cultural tidbits and gets surreal with its touches of bleak humor. The score is Morricone-inspired, and the film reads like of a spaghetti western, though transposed to Indonesia and given a feminist sensibility. Refreshingly, in this tale of redemption and empowerment, the women stay women throughout, never donning the mantel of maleness to achieve their goals.
Note: There are swords in this film, and they get wielded, though I wouldn't go so far as to promise swashbuckling.
While all of this is going on, Marlina's husband sits in the room. He sits in the shadows near the wall, posed like Munch's "The Scream", only with eyes and mouth closed. He's mummified, you see, having died recently, and I guess it's an Indonesian cultural thing, to stuff dead relatives and decorate your house with them.
Anyway, the men knew that Marlina was recently widowed and saw her as an easy target.
Only she isn't, not entirely. Though powerless and far out-numbered, she keeps her wits about her, and without going the testosterone route, she manages to escape most of the personal abuse. But still, things happen, and afterwards she's determined to get justice. That means taking the "evidence" to a police station far away, using various modes of transportation (some of them objecting vigorously to the "evidence" she open-carries). Further, some of the gang are hot on her tail, and using faster modes of travel.
Her only ally through this whole ordeal is Novi, who has problems of her own. She's pregnant and way overdue, which her cruel husband sees as evidence that she's been sleeping around.
I found this film fascinating. Though slow-moving, it's peppered with cultural tidbits and gets surreal with its touches of bleak humor. The score is Morricone-inspired, and the film reads like of a spaghetti western, though transposed to Indonesia and given a feminist sensibility. Refreshingly, in this tale of redemption and empowerment, the women stay women throughout, never donning the mantel of maleness to achieve their goals.
Note: There are swords in this film, and they get wielded, though I wouldn't go so far as to promise swashbuckling.
I'm nobody's pony.