Perempuan Berkelamin Darah

The only reason I checked this movie out was because it was Indonesia's official submission to the Oscars this year. And having watched a few but amazing Indonesian movies in the past, I was rather curious what this year's entry was about. But not too long into the movie, it becomes quite obviously apparent that this is a movie about a very heavy subject matter in the hands of someone who just lacks the nuance to approach it with any level of sensibility that isn't just "r*pe bad".

I know nothing about the director, but this movie reads like the works of someone with a very 'cinematically artsy' view of how victims of r*pe and SA would behave, and that makes it rather unintentionally comical. The scene where Martha first returns for her father's funeral in a 'traumatized' state and waves at the corpse with a half-smile is about as prophetic as a scene could be as to how this movie perceives acts of sexual violence and the trauma it brings with it.

It's a very 'made-for-festivals' movie where the mere act of filming poverty or gratuitous acts of sexual violence could give the filmmaker the impression that they're now exempt from actually having to present something of value. There isn't much I really liked about this movie; both conceptually and even technically, and I just found it to be a huge waste of time.