Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts

Marlina lives alone on the island of Sumba. Her husband has died and, with no money for a funeral, the body is still in the house, wrapped. One afternoon a man comes. Markus tells her he will take her livestock, that six more of his friends will arrive in the evening, that she will cook for them and then sleep with all of them. Marlina prepares the meal. Then she cuts off his head, takes it with her and sets out; she will report it to the police. The road is long and the buses are few. Mouly Surya directs. Marsha Timothy plays Marlina. It is an Indonesian production. The film was shown in Directors' Fortnight at Cannes and was widely seen in international circulation. Its form is the western; the wide frames, the horse, the long road and the music are taken directly from the genre, and the director says so openly. The island is inside the narrative; the customs of Sumba, the order of funerals and the legal position of women are shown directly. The narrative does not elevate revenge; Marlina carries the cost of what she did and finds no relief anywhere. There is a second woman in the film: the pregnant Novi carries its humour and its solidarity. The bearing of the police is its hardest criticism; the complaint is not recorded. Who it is for: viewers who like independent Asian cinema and experiments with genre. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, the violence explicit, and the narrative deliberately distanced.