MOVIE OF THE WEEK April 12, 2024: SWEET DREAMS
Blending elements of satire and political and social commentary, Bosnian-Dutch director Ena Sendijarevic’s Indonesia-set period drama Sweet Dreams reaffirms the ugliness of colonialism as it tells the story of the cascading impact of the sudden death of a Dutch sugar plantation owner. The women in his life — wife, housekeeper, daughter in law — are at the heart of the storm unleashed by his passing, and their chances of weathering it are uncertain at best.
Jan (Hans Dagelet) and his wife, Agathe (Renée Soutendijk), enjoy the material trappings that come with being White European colonists, but they’re not happy. Running the sugar plantation is challenging, especially when the workers are on strike and the glory days of colonialism seem to be coming to an end. Jan seeks comfort in the bed of their resigned, pragmatic housekeeper, Siti (Hayati Azis), who’s the mother of Jan’s illegitimate son, Karel (Rio Kaj Den Haas). Jan seems genuinely attached to the boy, which complicates things after Jan’s unexpected passing and the subsequent arrival of his and Agathe’s adult son, Cornelius (Florian Myjer), and his wife, the demanding, pregnant Josefien (Lisa Zweerman).
Cornelius and Josefien are ready to sell everything and hightail it back to the Netherlands, but Agathe is resistant — and then there’s the awkward fact that it turns out Jan actually left his estate to Karel instead of Cornelius. As push comes to shove, the European characters try to maintain their dominance, while the Indonesian characters try to figure out what might be coming next for them if the Dutch are really going to be gone. Siti’s main concern is doing what’s best for Karel, but what that might be isn’t always clear.
Thanks to touches like Martial Foe’s plinky, almost dissonant score, Emo Weemhoff’s lush cinematography, and surrealistic scenes that are reminiscent of Yorgos Lanthimos’ films — but also entirely their own — Sendijarevic’s film-festival favorite is simultaneously poignant and sharply satirical. There no rose-colored glasses strong enough to look at Sweet Dreams and see colonialism (and those who worked to uphold the system surrounding it) as anything other than a painful, awkward, unwelcome failure. — Betsy Bozdech
Team #MOTW’s comments:
Loren King Writer-director Ena Sendijarević’s strange, sumptuous critique of colonialism set in the Dutch East Indies about 1900, Sweet Dreams is often hypnotic. The film is rich with beautifully composed shots — a man on a horse alone in a field of sugar cane; a pregnant woman lit by candlelight as she’s curled on the floor of the plantation’s decaying mansion — yet the lacerating tone of this tragedy is mixed with sardonic wit. From the opening shot of a boy killing a tiger that is then carted through the cane fields on the shoulders of Indonesian natives, sugar will be the undoing of everything and everyone by murder or suicide. Central to the action is Siti (Hayati Azis), the Indonesian housekeeper for plantation owner Jan (Hans Dagelet) and his bored wife Agathe (Renée Soutendijk). Their days of oppressive rule are quickly wilting in the torrid heat. There is unrest among the exploited indigenous workers; one, Reza (Muhammad Khan), suggests that Siti poison their overseers. But Jan, we soon learn, is the father of Siti’s young son Karel (Rio Den Haas) who is treated as his heir and has already developed an identification with the colonizers. It’s Karel, the product of patriarchy, exploitation and greed, who is left with the spoils but at what cost? Full of eerie, surreal beauty and a touch of madness, Sendijarević’s twisted, tragic tale is a stunning film.
Pam Grady: When the owner of a Dutch East Indies sugar plantation dies, it unleashes a power struggle over what is to be done with the place. His widow has no intention of returning to the Netherlands, but her adult son and his pregnant, unhappy wife are broke and need to sell the place in order to have a future. A further wrinkle is that, the lord of the manor didn’t leave the plantation to them but his other child, the young son of his mistress and servant. A desultory power struggle ensues. In many ways the drama is quite accomplished, well-acted, gorgeously lensed, and so languid one can practically feel the humidity of place emanating from the screen. But to what end? There isn’t a single pleasant character, including the child, within a scenario that finally reaches a satisfying climax where all get what they deserve.
Nell Minow: Like the aesthetics and wit of Sweet Dreams, its entwined literal and metaphoric themes, sugar and money, have an enticing but superficial appeal. Writer/director Ena Sendijarevic does not hesitate to remind us that this may be a fact-inspired period piece with lovely settings and costumes but reminds us that those settings include a chessboard-style black and white tiled hallway and the maneuvering these characters are doing is not a game. Sharp and ruthlessly savage, this movie takes on colonialism, class, race, and the way that money can do to morality what sugar does to the teeth.
Nikki Fowler: This dark colonial dramady, Sweet Dreams, is an exquisitely cinematic but highly chaotic look at the 20th Century Dutch East Indies and what happens when a sugar plantation owner dies and leaves everything to his son out of wedlock who he fathered with a local woman. Unbeknownst to his broke eldest son, whose allowance has run dry as he makes the trek through the jungle with his pregnant wife, their plans to sell the property are fumbled. What happens next from this phenomenal cast is high drama and Sweet Dreams makes sure to cover all of the cinematic bases with rich hues and superb natural light flowing into scenes as the family stumbles through greed, fear and desperation with knives pointed at each others backs as we sway between the people of Indonesia and the economic and racial challenges they’ve faced for over a hundred years under the dominance and arrogance of the Dutch colonizers. The costumes, production and hair will have you transported in time and the cast is phenomenal with their emotions charged and changing faster than an origami paper finger game leaving viewers to make with it what they will. Superb!
Leslie Combemale Ena Sendijarevic’s film feels at times like a dream, at times like a nightmare. Moments of simplicity are juxtaposed against scenes of excess that show the abuse by colonizers both of the land they’ve occupied and of those who are native to that land, as they attempt to force local lifestyle to conform to where they’ve come from. Gorgeous, composed shots mixing monochrome with bright colors tell the story of these three women, almost like a mix of art by the Dutch painter Vermeer and Indonesian artist Affandi, if both were filtered through a surrealist lens. It’s as fascinating as it is beautiful to watch.
Jennifer Merin Acclaimed Bosnian-Dutch director Ena Sendijarevic’s Sweet Dreams is a compelling period drama that illuminates the lives of women in Dutch-colonized Indonesia at a time when Indonesian workers were on strike against the wealthy Dutch sugar plantation owners and the colonial administration was about to implode. Three strong women are at the center of the story: Agathe is the wife of the wealthy plantation owner, Siti is their housekeeper and his mistress, and Josefein is Agathe’s daughter-in-law who arrives with her husband to help settle the estate when the owner suddenly dies. Their characters and their relationship are complex and galvanizing. Craft-wise, the film is exquisitely realized — cinematography, costumes, set design are exquisite. Style-wise the film is unique. It invites you to enter another time and place and consider its circumstances — especially those of women. Ena Sendijarevic’s unique perspective and meditative pacing, her considered direction of the actors for their formality and stillness, and her insertion of unexpected wrinkles in the narrative keep you emotionally engaged and, at the same time, intellectually distanced from what’s happening on screen. It’s fascinating. The film has won prizes at important festivals and was the Netherlands’ official Academy Awards submission.
Sandie Angulo Chen: Sweet Dreams is a stylized, thought-provoking historical drama about a Dutch-owned sugar plantation in Indonesia. Bosnian-Dutch director Ena Sendijarevic explores the aftermath of a plantation owner’s death, and how it impacts his wife, his Indonesian housekeeper and mistress, and his pampered son and daughter-in-law, who are forced to travel from the Netherlands to settle his estate. More compellingly, the film follows the plantation’s workers, who hope to leave the plantation and live free of colonizer oppression.
Liz Whittemore After the sudden death of a sugar plantation owner in the Dutch East Indies, the question of ownership becomes complicated when he wills his estate, including the sugar plantation and factory, to his illegitimate son, born of his Indonesian housemaid. Following the surviving Dutch family’s attempts to retain control of the estate, and with a worker’s strike bringing the sugar harvesting and processing to a halt, Sweet Dreams delves into the end of colonialism and the mess of class. The incessant buzzing of mosquitos around spoiled adult children is a delicious touch. They straddle the line of progressive and evil elitists. Florian Myjer plays Jan’s son Cornelis. Moving between weak and audacious, Myjer delivers an intriguing performance. Lisa Zweerman is brilliant as the irritable and oversexed pregnant daughter-in-law Josefien. She is sharp, strong-willed, and devious. Renée Soutendijk delights as the family matriarch, Agathe. As her power withers due to gaslighting, she becomes rightfully unhinged. She is a marvel in this role. Hayati Azis gives Siti. the housekeeper, the vulnerability and quiet confidence it takes to own this complex character. She is mesmerizing, stuck between worlds. Myrte Beltman’s production design is sumptuous, with jewel tones, draped fabrics, and period knickknacks. The cinematography by Emo Weemhoff is breathtaking, utilizing natural lighting and thoughtful framing. Filmmaker Ena Sendijarević’s follow-up to Take Me Somewhere Nice is dazzling. The absolute chaos of the film’s final act is magnificent. Progress, classism, colonialism, and the complex nature that lies between, Sweet Dreams nails them all with the darkest satire.
Cate Marquis Haunting, slightly surreal, and dream-like, Sweet Dreams explores the impact of Dutch colonization in Indonesia through a tale of a Dutch sugar plantation owner at the end of the colonial era. The elderly Dutch owner and his wife have lived a life that is both luxurious and isolated. When the man dies suddenly, after visiting the bed of his housekeeper Siti, which whom he already has a son. his widow, Agathe, summons their son from Europe. Agathe imagines Cornelis will take over running the plantation and nothing will change for her, but everything is about to change in director Ena Sendijarevic’s strange, symbolic, visually lush drama. The Indonesian workers in the cane fields and the sugar factory, seething with resentment, are on the verge of leaving. When Cornelis arrives with his heavily pregnant wife Josefien, it is clear both of them intend to sell the plantation quickly and return to Europe as soon as possible. But complications keep them entangled, as everyone struggles to either fulfill their own ambitions or escape, including Siti, who has ambitious for her son.
FILM DETAILS:
Title: Sweet Dreams
Director: Ena Sendijarevic
Release Date: April 12, 2024 (US Theatrical)
Running Time: 102 minuted
Language: Dutch and Indonesian, with English subtitles
Screenwriter: Ena Sendijarevic
Distribution Company: Dekanalog
AWFJ Movie of the Week Panel Members: Sandie Angulo Chen, Betsy Bozdech, Leslie Combemale, Nikki Fowler, Pam Grady, Loren King, Cate Marquis, Jennifer Merin, Nell Minow, Sherin Nicole, Liz Whittemore
Other Movies Opening This Week
Edited by Jennifer Merin
