Bright Future review - SITI by Eddie Cahyono

A young Indonesian woman struggles with taking care of her family in Eddie Cahyono's sensitive neo realistic drama Siti, which had its international premiere in the Bright Future section of the 44th International Film Festival Rotterdam.
 
With her husband psychologically paralysed after a boating accident, poor young Siti finds herself the patriarch of her household, taking care of her young son and her mother in law. To add urgence to this touching and dense portrayal, she must come up with enough money to cover her husband's debt to a usurer and has only been given a few days to do so. 
 
Siti is the remarkable portrayal of a strong female role at a time in cinema when it's becoming frustratingly obvious that good female roles are still severely lacking in cinema. It is also a complete picture of a woman, and we follow her through her everyday internal and external struggles, forced to constantly look at the world around her like an outsider and lacking a more human closeness from her husband, who helplessly and hopelessly lays in bed in a quasi-catatonic state.
The film's structure borrows elements from the impulsiveness of neo-realism. As such, it is also driven by a melancholic sense of humour that enhances the drama of the young woman's life from a feminist perspective. This also enjoys accentuated sensitivity by a stylistic contrast with the old and new, visually represented by the use of black and white photography - usually meant to romanticise a story - and a handheld cinematography that on the other hand adds a dense stark feeling of realism.
 
In its honesty, the complete picture of the leading woman also deals with her more vulnerable sides, as well as her imperfections. The neglect she experiences from her man leads her to temptation, as she considers giving into the wooing of a kind hearted cop. All the while, we are aware of the fact that a lot of her feelings and struggles with her hardships are kept bottled up, much like a vulcano waiting to erupt. The sensitivity of Cahyono for the role of a strong female character within a society that is often portrayed in cinema as rather conventional and its sex roles well defined is matched by a remarkable performance by the leading actress Sekar Sari - here in her film debut. Her casting in the leading role in Siti also recalls the street casting of the afore mentioned neo realism, but with her performance she adds leading colour and magnetism to her roles and recalls the Anna Karina of Vivre Sa Vie by Jean-Luc Godard.