Sweet Dreams movie storyline. Written and directed by Ena Sendijarević, the film is set in 1900 on a small and obscure Indonesian island, where a sugar plantation baron named Jan (Hans Dagelet) has apparently died. “Apparently” meaning that, as far as most of the characters know, he’s almost certainly dead, but they don’t have a body.
This complicates the inevitable battle to figure out who will control the plantation and determine what becomes of it. The setup could’ve been the start of a murder mystery, but Sendijarević isn’t interested in playing those sorts of (enjoyable!) narrative games. Nearly every story point in the film is given to you right away or foreshadowed/telegraphed. What remains is the hows of storytelling and the whys of characterization.
The most important fact in play is that Jan has a young son named Karel (Rio Kaj Den Haas) by way of his illicit relationship with an Indonesia plantation worker named Siti (Hayati Azis). When the old man dies, his son Cornelis (Florian Myjer) and his pregnant wife Josefien (Lisa Zweerman) leave the Netherlands to sail around the world to join his widow Agathe (Renée Soutendijk) in the muddy jungle to figure out what happens next.
What happens next is anger, resentment, and skullduggery, triggered by the revelation that Jan has decided to leave everything to Karel. Grief drives people to extreme behavior. Grief coupled with an expectation of wealth kicks things up a notch, into danger and derangement. A plantation worker named Reza (Muhammad Khan) has been agitating on behalf of his fellow workers and even inspired them to go on strike over nonpayment of wages. He becomes a key player in the story, positioning himself as someone who will not only take the fight to The Man (and his women) but also charm Siti into leaving with Karel and starting a new life as his partner.
A cockroach crawls through the remnants of a fancy family dinner. Josefien (Lisa Zweerman) disembarks from a carriage that’s gotten stuck in on a wet road and the movie takes its time observing her fancy boots getting dirty in the mud. It’s not that anything the movie is telling us rings false, but that it’s all things we probably already knew yet are nonetheless presented as subversive and audacious.
Things start to get interesting when Jan posthumously acknowledges in writing that he’s had a son with his mistress, and that the lad will inherit everything. After that, “Sweet Dreams” becomes something faintly akin to a Coen brothers movie in which obtuse, deluded, and/or repulsive people plot against each other and get what they deserve, whether because the insular world that previously overlooked their obvious flaws collectively decides to pay attention and pass judgment, or because characters who believe they’re ruthless or clever turn out to be cowardly and/or stupid.
Film Review for Sweet Dreams
Blending elements of satire and political and social commentary, Bosnian-Dutch director Ena Sendijarevic’s Indonesia-set period drama Sweet Dreams reaffirms the ugliness of colonialism as it tells the story of the cascading impact of the sudden death of a Dutch sugar plantation owner. The women in his life — wife, housekeeper, daughter in law — are at the heart of the storm unleashed by his passing, and their chances of weathering it are uncertain at best.
Jan (Hans Dagelet) and his wife, Agathe (Renée Soutendijk), enjoy the material trappings that come with being White European colonists, but they’re not happy. Running the sugar plantation is challenging, especially when the workers are on strike and the glory days of colonialism seem to be coming to an end.
Jan seeks comfort in the bed of their resigned, pragmatic housekeeper, Siti (Hayati Azis), who’s the mother of Jan’s illegitimate son, Karel (Rio Kaj Den Haas). Jan seems genuinely attached to the boy, which complicates things after Jan’s unexpected passing and the subsequent arrival of his and Agathe’s adult son, Cornelius (Florian Myjer), and his wife, the demanding, pregnant Josefien (Lisa Zweerman).
Cornelius and Josefien are ready to sell everything and hightail it back to the Netherlands, but Agathe is resistant — and then there’s the awkward fact that it turns out Jan actually left his estate to Karel instead of Cornelius. As push comes to shove, the European characters try to maintain their dominance, while the Indonesian characters try to figure out what might be coming next for them if the Dutch are really going to be gone. Siti’s main concern is doing what’s best for Karel, but what that might be isn’t always clear.
Thanks to touches like Martial Foe’s plinky, almost dissonant score, Emo Weemhoff’s lush cinematography, and surrealistic scenes that are reminiscent of Yorgos Lanthimos’ films — but also entirely their own — Sendijarevic’s film-festival favorite is simultaneously poignant and sharply satirical. There no rose-colored glasses strong enough to look at Sweet Dreams and see colonialism (and those who worked to uphold the system surrounding it) as anything other than a painful, awkward, unwelcome failure.
Sweet Dreams (2023)
Directed by: Ena Sendijarevic
Starring: Hayati Azis, Renée Soutendijk, Florian Myjer, Lisa Zweerman, Muhammad Khan, Rio Kaj Den Haas, Hans Dagelet, Peter Faber, Verdi Solaiman, Chris Nietvelt, Elita Gullemot
Screenplay by: Ena Sendijarevic
Production Design by: Myrte Beltman
Cinematography by: Emo Weemhoff
Film Editing by: Lot Rossmark
Costume Design by: Bernadette Corstens
Art Direction by: Sophie van der Wel
Music by: Martial Foe
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Dekanalog (United States)
Release Date: October 18, 2023
Views: 18
