"Sweet Dreams" finds multiple tragedies in colonial Indonesia

In the ironically titled “Sweet Dreams,” on an Indonesian sugar plantation, run inhumanely by the Dutch circa 1900, life is about to change dramatically when owner Jan dies. Exploited Indigenous workers have already begun a strike when Jan’s son Cornelis and pregnant wife Josefien arrive ready to capitalize on their expected inheritance. Methodically, compellingly, hierarchical life will unravel.

Bosnian-Dutch writer/director Ena Sendijarevic develops the power struggle through stinging satire and absurdist developments. For the tyrannical family members are as physically unattractive as they are emotionally, including Jan’s obstinate, pitiless wife Agathe, costumed in a high-collared dress. The Indonesian house staff and community resist their colonizers, though the main house servant Siti has endured Jan’s sexual victimization for years. Their son Karel figures prominently in Jan’s will, seriously complicating the sugar factory’s survival.

In a lush green jungle, the opening scene establishes the inhumane behavior of the powerful toward vulnerable victims, colonial exploitation of people and place on full display in this meticulously paced plot. Cinematographer Emo Weemhoff’s reliance on wide-angle lenses distorts the subject matter, explicitly revealing their warped nature. Lush outdoor scenes contrast with dark, heavy paneled domestic spaces, often dimly lit. The sound design, particularly Martial Foe’s music, astutely interprets events from pestering mosquitoes to silent dances by Siti.

In a director’s statement, Sendijarevic calls the film “a horrific fairy tale,” adding “I did choose to approach these atrocities through an absurdist and alienating lens. . . one that presents reality as a magical, at times surrealist fiction.” And yet “Sweet Dreams” conveys a truthful critique more devastating than any documentary on a world divided into the cruel haves and disadvantaged have nots, the white and the indigenous. It is a successful, powerful film.

The Netherlands’ submission for the 2024 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, in Dutch and Indonesian with English subtitles, “Sweet Dreams” screens at Webster University’s Winifred Moore auditorium Friday, June 21, through Sunday, June 23, at 7:30 each of those evenings. For more information, you may visit the film series website.