Sumiati (Christine Hakim) was once a popular Jatilan dancer in her youth, but now she lives alone as a widow. After her husband was ruined by gambling and took his own life, leaving her with nothing but his debts, Sumiati is forced to marry off her only daughter Sri (Ayushita) to help pay them off. But she cannot protect Sri from an abusive, alcoholic son-in-law, and Sri flees the country to become a migrant worker abroad. There, subjected to abuse by her employer, she commits murder and is sentenced to death. When news of her daughter’s tragic fate reaches her, Sumiati makes the desperate decision to go and see her in person, defying the indifference and objections of those around her. Eddie Cahyono’s fourth feature, IBUKU, once again turns to the family narratives of his native Yogyakarta. As in his earlier work, he explores in even greater depth the lives of women living under oppression. The suffering of women forced to endure sacrifice and resistance amid patriarchal and economic collapse unfolds here into a profound psychological journey. The land, parched by relentless drought, becomes both a mirror for the characters’ devastated inner lives and trauma, and a paradoxical refuge from them. For women neglected by society and community alike, trapped with no way out in the snares of their own lives, might what they truly need now be reconciliation and forgiveness? Is this the only way to break this chain of tragedy?
Eddie Cahyono graduated from the Faculty of Recording Media Arts at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts. His feature film Siti (2014) received the Citra Award for Best Film and was screened at numerous international film festivals, including Rotterdam, Telluride, and Singapore. He went on to direct Mrs. Broto’s Hostel (2021) and served as an executive producer on Memories of My Body (2018) and Mountain Song (2019). IBUKU is his fourth feature film.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
