Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Kamila Andini
Starring: Arawinda Kirana, Kevin Ardilova, Dimas Aditya, Neneng Risma, Vania Aurell
Writer/director Kamila Andini's Yuni boasts a mood
swing befitting its teenage protagonist. It begins like an Indonesian
cousin of your average American teen comedy, detailing the ups and downs
of a teenage girl's life as she negotiates romance and aspirations while
struggling to get through school. But in its second half it takes a turn
as it depressingly reminds us that the chauvinistic society of Indonesia
isn't exactly the best part of the world for a woman to come of age if
her hopes and dreams extend beyond finding a husband.
Andini's smartest piece of filmmaking comes right at the start of her
film. Her camera watches as 16-year-old Yuni (Arawinda Kirana)
gets dressed for school. The colourful underwear she dons could be that
of a teen in Paris, London or New York, but when she covers herself in a
hijab we're reminded that teenage girls in this part of the world are
essentially living two lives – one for their parents and one for
themselves. Of course, that's the way of teenagers everywhere, but Yuni
has the added burden of a state increasingly turning to rigid Islamic
rules. With a pupil having become pregnant, Yuni's school is on the
verge of forcing its female students to take virginity tests, and the
Islamic authorities have banned the teaching of music.
A smart cookie, Yuni sees a way out through gaining a place in college.
This has two requirements: she'll have to perform very well in school
and she'll have to avoid getting married. To achieve the former she
enlists the aid of Yoga (Kevin Ardilova), a shy younger boy with
a knack for poetry and a long unspoken crush on Yuni. This leads to
something of a twist on the Cyrano de Bergerac set-up, as Yoga finds
himself writing poems that express his feelings for Yuni, who ironically
passes them off as her own words in the hopes of getting a high enough
grade and impressing the teacher she herself has a crush on (Dimas Aditya).
Avoiding getting married is a little trickier. As pretty as she is
smart, Yuni attracts her share of suitors, most of them old enough to be
her father, though some are young and handsome enough to draw jealousy
from her classmates.
These two subplots have very different stakes, and as such they make
for uncomfortable bedfellows. Half the movie is a rather generic if
charming teen romantic comedy while the other half is a gloomy reminder
of how religion still oppresses women in 2022. Kirana is very good at
pulling off both these moods, but the film she's in struggles to find
the right balance. It reaches a point where the potential for comedy has
been erased and we're left with a final act that forces us to coldly
watch a young woman beaten down by the society she longs to escape. It's
a case of preaching to the choir, as anyone who watches a movie like
Yuni is already on the movie's side when it comes to its gender politics
and condemnation of religion. Had Andini balanced her message more
evenly with her film's comic elements, she may have reached a more
mainstream audience that needs to learn of the pain of girls like
Yuni.
