One of the things the film festival does is plunge you headlong into another culture. Opera Jawa offers up a beautiful, bewildering, and tragic story in operatic style with Indonesian sensibilities.
The story is inspired by the Hindu epic poem Ramayana in which prince Rama loses his wife Sita to the demon king Ravana. The story is hard to follow at times, but is essentially about potter Setyo and his wife Siti who are living the good life in rural Java. Unfortunately their relationship falters, leaving Siti open to seduction by butcher Ludiro who has always lusted after her. At the same time, the idyllic country life of the villagers is wrenched by civil unrest, and sectarian violence.
The dialog is sung throughout, accompanied by the gamelan and other traditional Indonesian instruments. The music creates an exotic, otherworldly, and at times uneasy atmosphere.
Visually the film presents beautiful, surreal, and sometimes disturbing imagery. There are various styles of dance including martial arts, and a fully clothed yet erotic mingling in bed. An impossibly long bolt of red fabric leads Siti from her home to Ludiro's rendezvous in the jungle. Lotus flower candles light the house of Ludiro in an eerily romantic setting. A clay drenched scene with Setyo and Siti recalls the pottery wheel scene in Ghost but with a totally different context and emotion. Full-sized human head shaped candles drip red wax onto white mannequin bodies like blood.
While not the most accessible film–some scenes and character actions are quite inexplicable without a knowledge of Indonesian culture–it is interesting for its music and imagery.
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