Notizie

"It will be the end of a corrupt system!" There's a new Indonesian action thriller arriving to watch soon on VOD in the US titled 13 Bombs in Jakarta, also known as simply 13 Bombs. This intense thriller first premiered and opened in Indonesia last year, and recently played at the 2024 Rotterdam Film Festival a few months ago. A government organization races against time to uncover and stop the mastermind behind the placement of 13 bombs in Jakarta before the city falls into chaos. IFFR adds this intriguing detail: "Loosely inspired by the biggest financial fraud in Indonesian history, Angga Dwimas Sasongko’s smart, taut action thriller 13 Bombs revolves around the promises and treacheries of digital currencies. The narrative weaves together three points of view: those of the entrepreneurs, the bureau, & the militants themselves, who come across not as dramatic abstractions, but full-fledged characters with rational, even humanist motivations." 13 Bombs...

Malaise is the order of the day in Dutch-Bosnian writer-director Ena Sendijarević’s costume drama Sweet Dreams. Set in the Dutch East Indies at the dawn of the 20th century, the film captures the putrefaction of colonial rule with a morbid sense of humor. But for a work that’s all about boredom, Sweet Dreams is far from boring.

It’s the suspicious demise of Dutch sugar plantation owner Jan (Hans Dagelet) that sets the plot in motion. Agathe (Renée Soutendijk), the man’s profoundly cynical widow, writes to their son, Cornelis (Florian Myjer), telling him to return from the Netherlands to take over the estate. But when Cornelis and his pregnant wife, Josefien (Lisa Zweerman), arrive, it turns out that Jan has left everything to Karel (Rio Kak Den Haas), the progeny of his unconcealed liaisons with the family’s domestic servant, Siti (Hayati Azis). If Cornelis and Josefien...

Action blockbusters are not exactly the norm in Asian cinema, particularly outside of China, since the budget usually needed to shoot such a film is definitely a preventative factor. However, when these types of titles do come out, there seem to be from Indonesia, where, along with a number of other Asean countries, is where the epicenter of action/martial arts movies lies. Angga Dwimas Sasongko has come up with a film like that with “13 Bombs”, in a movie that also tries to incorporate some modern elements in the action, namely social commentary, the concept of cryptocurrency and the significant presence of women.

13 Bombs is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam

When a van carrying money explodes in the middle of the street, actually allowing the passerby to pick the money inside, the Indonesian Bureau of Counter-Terrorism gets immediately notified, although the person in-charge, Damascus, does not want...

It takes place on a sugar plantation, but Ena Sendijarević’s magnificently composed, eerily satirical “Sweet Dreams” has something more like acid flowing through its veins. Acid — or maybe formaldehyde, given the embalmed pallor of the dysfunctional Dutch colonial family whose values are so elegantly dissected within it. In only her second feature, after the Rotterdam-awarded “Take Me Somewhere Nice,” the Bosnian-Dutch filmmaker has established herself as a formidable talent with an eye for absurdity in Academy ratio, and a feel for the manicured, placid surfaces that contain rot and rebellion just as corsetry cinches in flesh.

It is 1900, and this little corner of the Dutch East Indies is verdant, damp jungle terrain. The air is thick with biting insects. Vincent Sinceretti’s extravagantly rich sound design is so multilayered that you can differentiate the crickets from the gnats from the omnipresent, whining mosquitoes. But part of the wilderness has been tamed — or more accurately,...

Writer-director Ena Sendijarević’s second feature, Sweet Dreams, follows a recent trend of arthouse films — including Zama, The Settlers and The Tale of King Crab — that explore Europe’s troubled colonial history through a postmodern mix of satire, surrealism and cinematic lyricism.

All of these elements are present in a story set in 1900 in the Dutch East Indies, where a family running a prosperous sugar plantation finds its status quo upended when their patriarch suddenly passes away. Left to deal with the fallout, the landowner’s wife and children are quickly exposed to the limits, as well as the terrors, of colonialism, in the face of Indigenous people who refuse to keep bowing down.

Shot in the 1.33:1 Academy ratio and divided into chapters like a novella, Sendijarević’s movie maintains a certain distance from its subject, gazing at it through a contemporary prism that critiques the racism and exploitation of the epoch.

Chennai, Aug 7 (Ians) Former champions Pakistan bounced back into contention, recovering from two successive draws following their defeat in the opening match, by beating bottom-placed China 2-1 in the Ahf Men’s Asian Champions Trophy here on Monday.

Pakistan had started the event with a 1-3 defeat to Malaysia in their first match on August 3 and then played out a 1-1 draw with Korea and a 3-3 stalemate with Asian Games winner Japan. They had failed to capitalise on a goal advantage against Korea and had to fight back from a deficit against Japan.

Languishing towards the bottom of the table with two points from three matches, Pakistan needed to win the match and did just that with a 2-1 win against minnows China.

After a goalless first quarter, Pakistan took the lead in the 20th minute when Muhammad Khan scored off a penalty corner. China levelled the score within...

As Leo Tolstoy wrote, all happy families are alike, while each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. The rich cry too and there is something universal about the rivalries between the loved and the unloved wives, sons and heirs, regardless of their social status. So, why would the family of the sugar plantation owners in the Dutch East Indies in Ena Sendijarević's sophomore feature “Sweet Dreams” be any different? The film has just world-premiered at Locarno, where we also caught it.

Sweet Dreams is screening in Locarno Film Festival

Somewhere in Indonesia in the early 1900s, Jan (Hans Dagelet) owns the plantation and the sugar processing plant and rules it with an iron fist. He is no softer even at home, where he commands over his seemingly blasée European wife Agathe (Renée Soutendijk) and his Indonesian housekeeper-lover-concubine Siti (Hayati Azis), while the two battle one another, each...

Editor’s Note: This review originally published during the 2023 Locarno Film Festival. Dekanalog will release “Sweet Dreams” in U.S. theaters on Friday, April 12.

Two-thirds of the way into Ena Sendijarević’s stylized sophomore feature “Sweet Dreams”, a heavily pregnant white Dutch colonialist, Josefien (Lisa Zweerman), is attempting to relieve some pent-up hormonal tension by straddling her bedpost and getting herself off. It is at this exact moment that an Indonesian housegirl, Siti (Hayati Azis), walks in bearing a jug of water and a glass.

Josefien experiences no shame and seizes her chance to manipulate Siti, for Siti has the status afforded by bearing the illegitimate son, Karel (Rio Den Haas), of the recently deceased plantation head, Jan (Hans Dagelet). Unbeknownst to Siti, Jan left it all to Karel and now the young heir and his mother both have targets on their backs for Jan’s older son, Cornelius (Florian Myjer...

Firm messages about female liberty and self-determination are delivered with a gentle touch in “Yuni,” a compassionate and engaging coming-of-age tale about a 16-year-old schoolgirl who doesn’t know exactly what she wants to do with her life but does know that she’s not ready to follow tradition and become a teenage bride. The third feature directed solo by Kamila Andini (“The Seen and Unseen”) tackles topics that need to be discussed and further enhances her standing as a vital and intelligent voice in contemporary Indonesian cinema. “Yuni” is sure to travel widely at festivals and has what it takes to become a domestic commercial success that entertains audiences and gets them talking about the pertinent issues it raises.

. The screenplay by Andini and Prima Rusdi doesn’t shy away from anything, but at the same time it never has to stand on a soapbox to get its progressive and persuasive messages across.

Upon its initial release in late 2018, Indonesian arthouse director Garin Nugroho’s “Memories Of My Body” made, to understate things, quite the splash. A story revolving around a gay teenager embracing his sexuality through a combination of dance and crossdressing was always going to be controversial in the typically heavily conservative and homophobic authority in Indonesia, but the response from Indonesia has been particularly polarizing. On one hand, the film has received stellar reviews from local and international critics alike (qualifying for many international festivals and being Indonesia’s submission for best foreign-language film at the 92nd Academy Awards), as well as positive coverage by local media such as CNN Indonesia. On the other hand, the film was the subject of a colossal backlash and censorship from the Indo government and a portion of Indo’s conservative demographic, resulting in petitions and protests due to its LGBTQ content, and subsequent near-nationwide banning of the film.