Mariposa

Fajar Bustomi's 2020 Indonesian film follows Acha, who falls for Iqbal, the hardest-working student in her class. She keeps approaching him; he has no time for anything under pressure from his family. What is unusual is that the persistent one is the girl, and that the story frames this not as a display of power but as a process of learning; at a certain point Acha also learns to withdraw. It stays inside the template of Indonesian teen romance and the school scenes are realistic. Its weakness is a thin treatment of the family pressure line and a final section that is too neat. Who it's for: viewers who like Indonesian films about young people and school romance. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a story outside the template, or troubled by persistent pursuit being romanticised.