A visually stunning period drama and a biting satire set on a sugar plantation in the final years of the Dutch colonial era.
Dutch East Indies, around 1900. The imperious patriarch and sugar plantation owner Jan suddenly dies after one of his nightly visits to Siti, his Indonesian housekeeper. His widow Agathe demands the return from Europe of Jan's pompous son Cornelius and heavily pregnant daughter-in-law Josefin. When they all learn of Jan's decision to bequeath his estate to his son with Siti, the ensuing power struggles add a further degree of turbulence. Adopting a stylized, formally playful approach, the director depicts the violence inherent in colonialism and its suppressed stories.
"The climate had a huge effect on me, as the pace of movement was different because of the heat, and there were insects everywhere. That was fascinating, to really feel how much of an effect it has on your body. So I wanted to take that atmosphere and try to translate it into a cinematic language ... I wanted the sounds of nature to be present, always in the background, and people's faces to be sweating at all times. ... Actually, I had a little wound that wouldn't heal because of the climate: it got bigger and bigger - it was disgusting. But it had a major effect on me, psychologically, to see how the environment and people's bodies interacted, especially as I was a newcomer, like my characters." (Ena Sendijarević)