Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash

Edwin's 2021 Indonesian film is adapted from Eka Kurniawan's novel and set in the eighties. Ajo Kawir is a fighter who fears nothing and does not care about death; underneath that rage is something he hides, and his impotence is tied to what he witnessed as a child. When he meets Iteung, a woman fighter, she beats him and he falls in love with her at the same moment. The film ties violence to the question of manhood and neither exalts nor excuses its protagonist's rage; its real subject is how an identity built on violence stops working. The military regime of the period stands in the background and the characters' past trauma is connected to it. The tone moves between black comedy and action. It won the Golden Leopard at Locarno. Who it's for: viewers who like Southeast Asian cinema and mixtures of genre. Who it's not for: anyone who would rather not approach sexual violence; the film places it at the base of its story.