Mother crocodiles protect their young by putting them in their jaws, the same place they devour their prey.
Dark water boils and flashes with light as frenzied reptiles jostle with each other for chickens thrown at them by Johan and his mom. At their sparsely attended crocodile amusement park the pair are the sole proprietors, workers, and - during long stretches of night - audience. Spending long hours of isolation together mother and son work like a well-oiled machine. As is common for Indonesian young adults, they even sleep side by side. This is until a pretty, young woman from the local karaoke bar shows up at the park entrance looking for Johan. Mom freaks out. There is a rumor that she fed her cheating husband to the crocs and as her son spends increasingly more time with his girlfriend, one of the two seems destined for Mom's teeth, either to protect her son, or devour him.
"You're good at this game" says mother to son, "but not at lying."
My favorite author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, would love this film; slow burning, loaded with emotional complexities, at the same time tender and terrifying, and fantasies merging with reality. First time director Tumpal Tampubolon and his leads were present at this world premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. The actors agreed that Tampubolon sought collaborators in them, not servants. This is heartening to hear, and it yielded interesting results in the film. The actors and director often discussed how to make scenes more believable together.
"I don't want to spend my life alone," Johan tells his mom. And she responds, "but you have me!"
