Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts

Developed from a story by Indonesia's most celebrated director, Garin Nugroho, this "satay western" establishes Mouly Surya among the country's most dynamic female film-makers. Co-scripting with Rama Adi, Surya divides her third feature into four parts: The Robbery, The Journey, The Confession and The Birth. The story plays out across the island of Sumba, where widow Marsha Timothy tries to explain to some sceptical cops why she decapitated the thuggish Egi Fedly in front of her late husband's corpse. Along the way, Timothy's garrulous travelling companion Dea Panendra has problems of her own, as her spouse is convinced she's pregnant with another man's child. Surya tempers the violence with some wry asides on the status of women in a conservative Islamic patriarchy. And with its exceptional score and widescreen views of the parched landscape, there's a Leonean feel to proceedings, which makes the feminist exposé of the macho brutality of the male characters all the more shockingly droll.