What They Don't Talk About When They Talk About Love

A boarding school for the blind in Jakarta. Diana and Fitri share a room and are friends. Diana has partial sight; she can make out light and shapes. Fitri sees nothing. Each has her own matter. Diana is interested in someone from outside the school; he comes at night and waits by the gate and she has never seen him. Fitri keeps an imagining of her own and sets her own rules inside it. The narrative moves between the two and shows the daily order of the school. Mouly Surya writes and directs. It is an Indonesian production. The film was shown at Sundance and brought the director into international circulation. What is most striking is the sound design; the film builds the perception of the blind characters through sound and the image is at times deliberately unfocused. Its subject is not disability but adolescence; the characters are dealing with their own bodies and desires and the school restricts that. The film treats sexuality and desire openly, which was unusual in Indonesian cinema at the time. Mouly Surya is among the names of the generation in which women directors came forward in Indonesia. Its limit is structure; the narrative is loose and some strands do not resolve. Who it is for: viewers who like Southeast Asian independent cinema and youth narratives. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, little happens, and the narrative explains nothing.