This is a festival-typical movie. Attempting to explore a simple life (as Majid Majidi did in "Children of Heaven" and "Baran"), Riri Riza had succeeded in showing the audience, the JAKARTA.
Jakarta is a scary big city, especially for them who have just arrive from other cities/villages and for them who are part of older generation. They see Jakarta as mess and heretic city while the younger generation see Jakarta as the city of freedom and salvation.
The movie itself was set in Blok M, one of the busiest districts in Jakarta in Day and Night. You can see the corruption, anger, immoral behavior in the day and low-class nightlife. You can see the shock experienced by the older generation (imagine how shocked the character of father was in "Coyote's Ugly" when he saw his daughter --which he expected to be a singer-- became a dancer in nightclub).
And when most people in Indonesia think the Jakarta people's mind is always about how to be a rich people, this movie is accurately shown that is not the case. The most priority in Jakarta people's mind is about how to survive. How to continue the live until the next day and the day after. And morality is not the main issue in Jakarta lifestyle -- which may considered as heretic by conservative people.
The story itself ended when the mother saw her daughter would not sacrifice her moral for surviving.
Jakarta is a scary big city, especially for them who have just arrive from other cities/villages and for them who are part of older generation. They see Jakarta as mess and heretic city while the younger generation see Jakarta as the city of freedom and salvation.
The movie itself was set in Blok M, one of the busiest districts in Jakarta in Day and Night. You can see the corruption, anger, immoral behavior in the day and low-class nightlife. You can see the shock experienced by the older generation (imagine how shocked the character of father was in "Coyote's Ugly" when he saw his daughter --which he expected to be a singer-- became a dancer in nightclub).
And when most people in Indonesia think the Jakarta people's mind is always about how to be a rich people, this movie is accurately shown that is not the case. The most priority in Jakarta people's mind is about how to survive. How to continue the live until the next day and the day after. And morality is not the main issue in Jakarta lifestyle -- which may considered as heretic by conservative people.
The story itself ended when the mother saw her daughter would not sacrifice her moral for surviving.