12th(2010)
At Stake: Effort for Love
Ani Ema SUSANTI
- Indonesia
- 2008
- 27min
- Beta, Digi-beta
- color
- Documentary
SYNOPSIS
Berlin International Film Festival 2009
Best Documentary Film
Ruwati and Riantini are two migrant workers who work as domestic helpers in Hong Kong. They are well paid and become the important breadwinners for the family in Java. Ru is about to go home to get married, but just found out she has a cervical tumor. The treatment requires internal examination that can damage her virginity. Riantini is a divorcee who falls in love with a fellow migrant worker in Hong Kong.
Having personal experience working in Hong Kong as a migrant worker to earn college tuition, the director tells the story of two migrant women laborers with a strong sense of responsibility and independence in Hong Kong. They work as house maids and make much more money than they did in their home country, but their love stories are not as bright as their careers. Ruwati finds that she has uterine cancer right before her wedding, but she hesitates for the operation in a worry that her hymen may get destroyed. Meanwhile, Riantini, a divorced woman, falls in love with another woman. This film pictures the women bodies and their sexualities that are being exchanged in the context of patriarchy, religion, nation, and the global political economy through the stories of two migrant women. (CHO Hye-young)
PROGRAM NOTE
Berlin International Film Festival 2009
Best Documentary Film
Synopsis
Ruwati and Riantini are two migrant workers who work as domestic helpers in Hong Kong. They are well paid and become the important breadwinners for the family in Java. Ru is about to go home to get married, but just found out she has a cervical tumor. The treatment requires internal examination that can damage her virginity. Riantini is a divorcee who falls in love with a fellow migrant worker in Hong Kong.
Program Note
Having personal experience working in Hong Kong as a migrant worker to earn college tuition, the director tells the story of two migrant women laborers with a strong sense of responsibility and independence in Hong Kong. They work as house maids and make much more money than they did in their home country, but their love stories are not as bright as their careers. Ruwati finds that she has uterine cancer right before her wedding, but she hesitates for the operation in a worry that her hymen may get destroyed. Meanwhile, Riantini, a divorced woman, falls in love with another woman. This film pictures the women bodies and their sexualities that are being exchanged in the context of patriarchy, religion, nation, and the global political economy through the stories of two migrant women. (CHO Hye-young)
Director
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Ani Ema SUSANTIAni Ema SUSANTI
Before obtaining her degree in psychology, Ani had worked in Hong Kong as migrant worker for two years to save money for her college education. She’s familiar with women migrant worker’s issues and finds that documentary film is the best medium to express herself. Her first short documentary Hong Kong Helper Goes to Campus was chosen as a finalist in a local documentary competition in 2007. Another work is Bye-Bye Hong Kong I’m A Teacher Now (2007). The latest, At Stake: Effort for Love (2008) highlighted the feminist issue on the gender perspective on the modern and independent women’s life.
Credit
- ProducerNia DINATA, Constantin PAPADIMITRIOU, Vivian IDRIS
- Cinematography Rudolph Angelo RATULANGI, Hoka Boy, Goen Guy GUNAWAN
- Art director Abduh AZIZ
- Editor Bernardes SALVANO, Aline JUSRIA
- Music Aghi NAROTTAMA, Bemby GUSTI, Ramando GASCARO
- Sound Ferry ARDIYAN, Yusuf A. PATAWARI, Budi SETIAWAN
