Budi Pekerti

This movie will leave you speechless! Loved the detail and the way the story was told. All the actors did a great job at their character roles and the story was kept to the point. I am really hoping people can see this gem around the world because it makes you realize the power that social media holds. This movies holds the truth on how social media can impact someone in both positive and negative ways. The pressure of social media can really change your life. This film does a really great job showing how it can in many different aspects. It is a movie for the whole family and I especially loved watching this at TIFF!

This movie is the best movie in this year, it can show you that social media sometimes can be a bad place for us. It can be a harmful place if we don't use it wisely. Like in the story here Ms. Prani a conselor teacher who is being the victim of scoial media. She did nothing wrong and she accused of speaking rude to a putu seller. And now Ms. Prani and her family needs to face and find the way out from the trouble that influencers have made. They have to stay strong. From this movie we learn to not supposed to believe something that viral without searching for the prove first. And also we have to stay strong for facing the world.

There are plenty of films about social media but this is just pitch perfect. At the heart is a dysfunctional family. Where the mom is a counselor at a school her offspring social media influencers. This is thrown out of balance when she's caught swearing in public and then both her two kids and then school board are trying to manage the fallout on social media. What then follows is an emotional but also hugely entertaining roller-coaster of mishaps, short moments of relief which are then followed by other unpredictable reactions from social media. This is all hugely engaging because of perfect character development, a very dense script, amazing visuals and fantastic acting. Even that it's all of course constructed it feels natural and one roots with every single family member.

What's interesting about Budi Pekerti is that it takes the most relevant elements in social media life today: virality, cancel culture, and popularity. In his latest feature film after Photocopier (2021), Wregas Bhanuteja presents characters full of ethical and personality complexity which have to face the nightmare of their actions because of social media which causes the boundaries of morality to become blurred. Wregas is an expert in exploring human emotions and how a person's choices will have consequences, especially those that happen to Mrs. Prani (played extraordinary by Sha Ine Febriyanti) so this film feels very close to us. What Wregas did was so precise and effective that Budi Pekerti deserves to be one of the best Indonesian films in 2023.

Watching Budi Pekerti felt incredibly personal. I know exactly how difficult it already is to be a teacher in Indonesia - underpaid, overworked, and expected to be perfect at all times. That's why Bu Prani's story cut so deep. She was never trying to be a hero. She was just tired. Human.

When that one moment at the market was caught on video, I knew what was coming. The internet doesn't wait. People don't ask questions. And just like that, everything she built - her job, her identity, her dignity - was put on trial by strangers.

Ine Febriyanti's performance was devastating in the best way. So subtle, but so powerful. I could feel her crumbling quietly, the way many real people do - without drama, without screaming, just... trying to survive.

And the ending? Honestly, I loved it. It doesn't force a "happy" resolution, and that's exactly why it works. Sometimes, life doesn't wrap up neatly. Sometimes, we just carry on, even if we're broken. And that final scene says more in silence than any dialogue could.

Budi Pekerti is the kind of film that lingers. It's not just a social commentary. It's a reflection of how cruel we've become, and how little space we give people to just be human. I cried when it ended - not because it was tragic, but because it was honest.

This film matters.