Gowok: Javanese Kamasutra

Java in the nineteen sixties. There is a custom called gowok: women who teach young men about to marry what married life is. These women hold a separate position in society; they are considered necessary and are excluded. A young woman is placed with a mistress of the practice to learn it. She learns the rules. Then she breaks one: she falls in love with one of her clients and betrays her teacher. The price is heavy. Hanung Bramantyo directs. Raihaanun, Lola Amaria and Reza Rahadian are in the cast. Bramantyo is among the most prolific directors in Indonesia and is known for historical drama. Gowok was a custom practised in Java in the past; the film uses it not as a curiosity but to show the social position of women. The subject is the difference between knowledge and standing: these women know something and are for that very reason accepted nowhere. The period is drawn in detail; rural life in sixties Java and its social hierarchy are shown. It was released with an age restriction in Indonesia and was argued over because of its subject. Its limit is tone; in places the narrative turns the matter into melodrama and the historical frame falls back. Who it is for: viewers who follow Indonesian cinema and historical social drama. Who it is not for: the subject is sensitive, some scenes are explicit, and the narrative becomes formulaic in the second half.