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'Nay' goes through women issues in a single ride
Sha Ine Febrianty (Courtesy of Rumah Karya Sjuman)Djenar Maesa Ayuâs latest film brings us the poignant story of Nayla (Sha Ine Febrianty), an actress who confronts the dilemma of her pregnancy and a traumatic childhood in an evening drive around Jakarta
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Sha Ine Febrianty (Courtesy of Rumah Karya Sjuman) (Courtesy of Rumah Karya Sjuman)
Sha Ine Febrianty (Courtesy of Rumah Karya Sjuman)
Djenar Maesa Ayu's latest film brings us the poignant story of Nayla (Sha Ine Febrianty), an actress who confronts the dilemma of her pregnancy and a traumatic childhood in an evening drive around Jakarta.
The film Nay boasts an interesting storyline; Nay drives and makes phone calls for almost the entire length of this 80-minute drama. This one-person-behind-the-wheel script concept was previously shown in the film Locke, which presented a powerful performance by Tom Hardy.
Such a concept can significantly reduce a film budget but, on the other hand, it demands an engaging story and a talented main actor in order to keep the audience on the edge of their seats until the closing credits appear.
Djenar, who wrote, directed and produced the film, uses the journey around Jakarta to unravel a series of women's issues ' from work pressures and a problematic mother-daughter relationship to sexual abuse.
From the outset, the film takes us directly inside the car of the character Nayla, fondly called Nay, an actress who has just secured a role in an international-scale movie project. But there is no smile on her face.
On a smartphone connected to her car speaker system, Nay calls her manager and childhood best friend, Adjeng (Cinta Ramlan) to break the news that she is 11-week pregnant.
Rather than showing Nay comfort, Adjeng focuses on how the pregnancy will derail Nay's acting career.
Nay calls her boyfriend Ben (Paul Agusta), the baby's father, who has been avoiding conversations about the baby.
Ben tells Nay to talk about the pregnancy issue later and insists that it is kept secret from his mother. Irritated by Ben's prolonged indecisiveness, Nay drives to Ben's house and reveals the secret to his mother.
The surprising part comes when Ben's mother (Niniek L. Karim) calls Nay, claiming that her son is a victim in the matter. For her, Nay is little more than a woman who sleeps with every man she can get and Ben, a victim who fell into Nay's trap of seduction.
'Can you guarantee that the baby is genuinely fathered by Ben?' Ben's mother questions with scorn.
Nay is frustrated, but not to the point of hopelessness; she wants to keep the baby without Ben by her side. With this decision, Nay finds herself in a similar situation to that faced by her own mother and thus, this decision is largely fueled by an ambition to prove that she can be a better mother than her own, who mistreated her.
Nay's mother was a singer and, despite the fact that her boyfriend refused to take responsibility of the baby, she gave birth to Nay. She got another boyfriend, in hopes of providing a father figure for Nay, but instead, he left an unforgettable scar on Nay's childhood.
Djenar is smart in the way she allows Nay to relive her memories of her mother throughout the journey with the introduction of a street beggar carrying her baby to the car window during a brief stop in front of the hospital where she was born.
Nay, despite hating her mother so much, follows her mother's path to find a father figure for her baby. She calls her past lover Pram (Joko Anwar) in the hope that he will fill the empty spot left by Ben.
Her bitter past and her problematic relationships leave her at a crossroads; Nay is concluded with a poignant yet perfect ending.
The film Nay offers plenty of conflict throughout the 80-minute runtime. It intelligently explores crucial issues regarding woman and society through a series of phone calls in an evening ride through the city.
As Nay is a stressed and apparently foul-mouthed actress, Ine's dialogue contains a plentiful amount of yelling and swearing and she gives a good performance. But the star here is Niniek L. Karim with her minutes-long voice over as Ben's mother.
The character 'Ben's mother' brilliantly presents the condition in our society today. She is a reminder that stigmatization of women is not only committed by men, but also by women.
Merely through her voice, Niniek presents a strong performance as a self-righteous and conservative woman ' one that perhaps you have encountered in real life.
The film, however, suffers continuity problems. The car seems to hop randomly from MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta to Sudirman Central Business District and back to Thamrin.
At one time, established shots show the car passing tall buildings but when the camera returns to scenes inside the car, Nay is seen driving in a residential area. And despite the repeated views of congested city streets, Nay amazingly passes through main thoroughfares smoothly at around 9 p.m.
Djenar's third film, following Mereka Bilang Saya Monyet! (2005) and SAIA (2006), Nay is the development of Djenar's Monolog 3 Perempuan (Monologue of Three Women) performance last year, where Ine took the role of Nayla for the first time. She used crowd-funding platform wujudkan.com to generate the film budget.
Yes, Djenar has managed to successfully pack an emotional and eye-opening story into a drive around Jakarta inside a striking yellow Mini Cooper. The question is, are the Indonesian general audience ready to confront inconvenient truths about women or would they rather spend their money on pure cinematic entertainment?
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Nay (Rumah Karya Sjuman, 80 minutes)
Producer, director and scriptwriter: Djenar Maesa Ayu
Cast: Sha Ine Febrianty, Cinta Ramlan, Farishad Latjuba, Joko Anwar, Niniek L. Karim, Paul Agusta
