Locarno Diary #5: "Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash" wins the Golden Leopard

by Elisa Giudici

"Vengeance is Mind, All Others Pay Cash" won the Golden Leopard

I did it. With your help! 

I am always so happy when the winner of something-d'Or at a Festival I attended is a movie I was able to see and review. Sometimes seeing all of the competition entries is next to impossible (though I managed at Cannes this year!) and, festival after festival, I discover it requires a special talent to sense which film you should not miss, no matter what. It's a talent/skill I am trying to develop. This time I was lucky. Not only did I see the Golden Leopard winner Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash but I scheduled it thanks to a comment I read right here on The Film Experience!  I was not able to attend the first press screenings but because of the hype generated by that comment and a little research among some Locarno connaisseurs I go to for help, I booked a ticket at the very last projection, late at night

After the first scene I knew it was the right choice, even if some major construction sites on my way home meant I wasn't able to sleep until 3 AM. After the credits I wrote this very note on my notebook: "A winner for sure, if the Jury is brave enough". It was!

Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash by Edwin 
Though this new Indonesian film was the best movie I saw from the competition, it is also very far from your typical winner. It's not a well-behaved drama about political or social issues that juries love to award. It is an over the top, ultra violent, and crazy genre-bender.

Based on 2014 novel by Eka Kurniawan, it's a perfect cocktail of revenge B-movie and melodrama, as strange as that sounds. The year is 1989, the place is Bojongsong District (Java), the protagonists are two youngsters who fall in love after having a very violent fight. She hit him hard with her little scooter, he gives her the ear of her (ex?) employer, so...it's love at first sight! However Ajo Kawir (Marthino Lio) has a secret he does not at first dare tell his beloved Iteung (Ladya Cheryl): he is unable to have an erection due to a traumatic event in his past.

"What do you do with a man who can't make his Birdie fly?" he asks her and she replies "I marry him".

This is the start of a movie full of murders, fights, romantic radio dedications, and contrasting elements from very distant genres and cinematic languages that somehow coheres perfectly. Edwin is irreverent and energetic in his approach, inventive in making characters speak both with words and fists and, if the movie needs to give some extra comment about a scene, well, that's something graffiti that can do that with the turn of a head to the audience. 

Indoensian director Edwin

It was a brave choice to include this movie in the main competition, but Locarno's new artistic director Giona A Nazzaro gambled and won. The energy in this movie that made me think of younger version of A list directors with a lot of verve and skill. Now they are masters but back then they were still trying to take the measure of their own talent and find a balance between elements. I won't say their names because, even with minor flaws, Vengeance... is a promise for something bigger and better, so no direct comparisons are fair. I really hope Edwin will find his perfect balance soon. If so, Locarno can claim to have "discovered" him.

Meanwhile I strongly recommend this movie. The last time I saw something so surprising and genre-bending was Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles' Bacurau. 

The Golden Leopard and me

Thanks for the reading the Locarno Diaries! "See" you at Venice.