Not every film at the Vancouver Film Festival is a film from 2024 or 2023. Marlina: The Murdered In Four Acts is an Indonesian film made in 2017. It was one of four films in the Leading Lights program of VIFF of picks from Pakistani-Canadian director Zarra Khan. It is a good film worth seeing.

The film begins with the first act: The Robbery. Marlina is a recent widow living on her farm on the Indonesian island of Sumba. You can tell she is still hurting as she has her husband’s mummified body in the house. One day, a gang of seven men arrive being led by Markus: the oldest of the gang. Their intention is to steal the livestock and to tape her now that her husband is deceased. Before they commit to the act, they demand she cooks them a dinner. She agrees to cook but poisons the dinner. All the robbers except Markus are affected by the poisoned dinner. Markus then rapes her in the bedroom but somehow she’s able to kill him by decapitating him while in the act and then burns his jungaa (musical instrument) he brought along.

The film then leads into the second act: The Journey. The next day, Marlina knows she will have to go on the run. She knows the surviving robbers will wake up from their poisoned stupor and want to kill her or rape her in revenge. She’s able to get on a bus. While on the bus, she meets a pregnant woman named Novi. Her pregnancy has been longer than nine months. Because of this, her husband Umbu suspects the delayed birth is because of infidelity and has left her. She’s on a trip to find Umbu as she expects the birth to happen soon. Also on the bus is an old widow with a dowry payment of two horses on her way to her nephew’s wedding.

Sure enough, two robbers have awoken and discover the deaths of Markus and other men. As expected, they go on their journey for revenge on Marlina. Much to their luck, the two robbers find the bus that Marlina’s on and hijack it. Marlina is able to find an escape with one of the widow’s horses. The escape is successful but Marlina is not alone. Following her and haunting her is an apparition of the headless Markus playing the jungaa.

This leads to the third act: The Confession. Marlina is far away from any harm in a village where nobody knows her. She decides to stay in the village because it has a police office and she can file her claim of robbery and rape. At the office, the police ask her some personal questions. Some of which appear narrow-minded.  The officer delivers some unpleasant news. Although they accept her claim, they don’t have the funds to purchase rape test equipment. Such funds will require a wait of a month or so. As Marlina is in the village, she stays at a warung. At the warung, she notices the daughter who has to work the business while the boys are at school or playing football. Marlina develops a bond with the young girl. Marlina is able to get a break from the pursuing robbers but is still haunted by the walking headless body of Markus.

This leads to the film’s fourth and final act: The Birth. The start of this act involves Novi. She finally finds Umbu. Instead of embracing her, he notices she has not given birth and believes a breech baby is a sign of her cheating. He hits Novi and leaves her. Unfortunately it’s Franz, one of the two surviving robbers, who finds Novi. He threatens her to lure Marlina back to Marlina’s house for his revenge. As the three meet at the house and face each other, Novi’s water breaks. Nevertheless Franz demands a dinner. There, Franz is able to reunite Markus’ head with his corpse and place it next to the corpse of Marlina’s husband. Franz thinks he can finally get revenge on Marlina and just when he thinks he does, Novi has another idea and is able to commit it despite being in labor. The film ends with Marlina, Novi and the newborn baby leaving the house the next morning.

This film tells a story of a woman on a mission to avoid being prosecuted for the murder she committed in self-defense and at the same time, avoid one of the men who seeks vengeance. The film also tells a lot in terms of sexist attitudes. We have Marlina who killed her rapist and is on the run. We also have Novi, a pregnant woman who was left abandoned by her husband.

Throughout the film, they face sexist attitudes from the men they’re around. There’s Marlina whom the thieves want to make their ‘slave’ in the robbery and Markus who wants to make her his ‘love toy.’ There’s Novi who is pregnant longer than normal and her superstitious husband sees it as her being unfaithful. There is surviving robber Franz who, more than any other robber, seeks revenge and to rape Marlina. There’s the police who give Marlina narrow-minded questions about the rape and, due to lack of funds, have to delay giving her a rape kit. There’s the girl at the village restaurant who is forced to work while the boys have the leisure time to play football. Finally, there’s Umbu who believes myths about delayed pregnancy and breech birth being sighs of infidelity and slaps Novi. Seeing all this happening to Marlina and Novi makes you wonder is that the sexist attitudes in Indonesia? I know there are different sexist beliefs in every country but are there other countries that have similar mythical sexist beliefs? It really makes you wonder. It also makes you understand why taking the law into their own hands was Marlina’s and Novi’s only option.

The film itself does the right thing in making it a story in four acts. The first act is about the robbery where a gang of robbers seek to rob a recent widow of her live stock and one of them to rape her in the heist. They fail thanks to Marlina’s brave wits but that leaves Marlina to seek justice. The second act is where Marlina meets a woman who would become just the partner she will need in the revenge plot, though she wouldn’t know it at the time. The second act is also where she learns of her revenge plot from surviving robber Franz and where she has to make her escape. The third act is where Marlina learns justice can only help her so much and gets her one day of peace knowing that Franz’s revenge is looming. Then the fourth and final act happens as her partner Novi is left by her husband and Franz’s revenge eventually happens. It becomes apparent the only person who can help Marlina is Novi. It also becomes obvious the only person who can be a person of support to Novi is Marlina. The story isn’t just a rape revenge story nor just a story of vigilantism. It’s also about two women betrayed by people that are supposed to support them when they need it. In the end, both turned out to be who the other needed and a bond was formed. It’s a good way of sending a message without losing focus that there is a drama to tell.

This film is a great accomplishment for Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya. This is the third feature length film she has directed. Along with directing, she co-wrote the film with Garin Nugroho and her husband Rama Adi. She does a great job in presenting the story of two women who not only have their enemies to deal with but a society of sexism. It’s great to see her deliver a story with a message of sexism that does not forget that it’s a dramatic story. She balances it out well. Also excellent is the acting of Marsha Timothy. She does a good job of making her character of Marlina a fierce heroine but also a common Indonesian woman at the same time. Making that balance is not easy and Marsha does a great job. Also great is Dea Panendra as Novi. She does her own great job of playing a common Indonesian woman who soon learns of her own brave courage. Yoga Pratama is also very good as Franz. Sometimes you wonder who is the true villain of the film? Markus or Franz? He even manages to make you feel sorry for him.

When it was released back in 2017, the film has won numerous film festival awards such as a special award at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival, the Queer Palm at Cannes, the NetPac Award at the Rotterdam Film Fest, the Grand Prize at the Tokyo FilmEX, three awards at the Festival Film Indonesia including Best Film and an Audience Award nominee at the AFI Fest.

Marlina: The Murderer In Four Acts is more than just a drama of revenge killing. It’s also a revealing look at sexist attitudes and the treatment of women that’s common in other parts of the world. If you see their stories, you can understand why Marlina and Novi would make vigilantes of themselves.