Opera Jawa

This is a lushly operatic marvel from Indonesia's leading director, Garin Nugroho, returning to the stylised theatricality of his earlier work. On a scene by scene basis, there is an immense amount in this film to dazzle as effects of mise en scène, dance, and music predominate linked by striking design motifs of shape and colour. A young wife, Siti, who used to play the role of Sinta in the Ramayana dances, has married a poor artisan who makes earthenware pots. When the son of a rich matriarch pursues her, class warfare breaks out and the story of Sinta is played out with a fresh twist. Mixing gamelan music, puppet theatre, traditional forms of dance and narrative but with a distinctively modern inflection, Nugroho asserts that cultural traditions should be constantly reinvented to restore the relevance to everyday life which has always been at their heart.

Like nothing you've ever seen or heard.

Tony Rayns