Ertanto Robby Soediskam’s turgid film, Ave Maryam, which he writes and directs, is a story of lust and guilt in equal measure.

The Bible portrays lust as many things, including the fact that it exists. King David succumbs to it when he orchestrates the death of Uriah, so that he could marry his wife, Bathsheba – whom he first sees while she’s in the shower. Incestuous desires trouble the mind of King David’s son, Amnon, who rapes his half-sister.

In a way, Ave Maryam could be a modern retelling of the sinful Adam and Eve arc. It concerns a nun who lives in a Catholic monastery in Semarang, Sister Maryam (Maudy Koesnaedi).

Along with the younger nuns in the monastery, Maryam takes care of the elderly nuns, including the sickly Sister Monic (Tutie Kirana).

From the moment the movie starts, we see Maryam’s worldly and bodily preoccupations – her fascination with books, for instance, which include Madame Bovary.

With glacial slowness, Ave Maryam carefully takes its audience into Maryam’s mind, which is rocked when a charming, orchestra-loving priest, Father Yosef (Chicco Jerikho), comes to visit the monastery. Ave Maryam is the story of Yosef and Maryam’s sinful courtship.

They start to sneak out at night after Yosef makes many attempts to woo Maryam by sending her written letters (I don’t think there’s modern technology in this film at all) and they knowingly break the vows they once took.

While guilt troubles Maryam more than it does Yosef, the film doesn’t explain the build-up to their violations, so both Maryam and Yosef’s desires, at first, don’t seem urgently governed by their religion – and we’re left to wonder why.

This is one of the reasons why Ave Maryam is weak-willed. It’s not a thought-provoking movie and it doesn’t even masquerade as one. Guilt, because of its cursory treatment, becomes an afterthought when it should have been the crux of the story.

From Yosef and Maryam’s perspectives, Ave Maryam portrays the human body as both sacred and carnal – nudity symbolizes the loosening grip of religion.

Consecration is portrayed as merely that: the solemn vow, the curse of a lustful person. The interiorities of both Maryam and Yosef are no more complicated than two humans in a star-crossed situation.

The voice of reason of Ave Maryam is Sister Monic, who warns Yosef and Maryam against their desires.

There’s an interesting scene in which Monic and the other nuns discuss the meaning of sin with Yosef. The priest asks: Why stick with religion when the only way we know of God is by asking him questions? This may be true, but the movie doesn’t justify why he says stuff like that.

The fact that Yosef is a pastor, reminded occasionally by Monic, means that he has too big a role to convince us of his skepticism – he’s a priest and priests don’t come from nowhere.

Even when the film doesn’t look it, Ave Maryam is simplistic. Ave Maryam is one of the most gorgeously shot films I’ve ever seen – each frame, punctuating the characters’ silent monologues, is beautiful.

Thanks to cinematographer Ical Tanjung, Ave Maryam convinces you of the movie’s ruminations. The monastery is also pleasantly and realistically shot – one of my favorite scenes is when the younger nuns bathe the older ones.

It is also decently acted. Moudy portrays Maryam’s descent into sinful acts quite well. Chicco, however, isn’t given much of a role to allow us to examine his own descent.

The supporting characters, including the inquisitive nun Sister Mila (Olga Lydia), make for a roundly well-acted film. What’s also notable is Ave Maryam’s own existence – it’s a little bold to make a theatrical film (it’s out in April) that centers on the Catholic faith.

Simon Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, was always a bondservant to God even though he thrice denies ever knowing Jesus before his crucifixion. The Bible explores the nuances of human sin, including lust. Ave Maryam could use more of that; it could interrogate the sinners’ faiths. Ave Maryam is not a religious film, nor does it pretend to be one.

INFO BOX

Ave Maryam

(85 minutes, Summerland Films)

Director: Ertanto Robby Soediskam

Cast: Maudy Koesnaedi, Chicco Jerikho, Tutie Kirana, Olga Lydia, Joko Anwar and Nathania Angela.

Plaza Indonesia Film Festival

Ave Maryam is one of the films being screened at the Plaza Indonesia Film Festival, which runs from Feb. 14 to 17. The festival is screening 12 films, including three feature films from Indonesia and four from Poland, Japan, Lebanon and Vietnam, as well as five compilations of short films created by young Indonesian filmmakers.

The other feature films are Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War from Poland, Ravi L. Bharwani’s 27 Steps of May from Indonesia, Hirokazu Koreeda’s Oscar-nominated Shoplifters from Japan, Nadine Labaki’s Capharnaum, which has received one nomination for an Oscar, Garin Nugroho’s Kucumbu Tubuh Indahku (Memories of My Body) from Indonesia and the Asia Pacific Film Festival 2018 winner The Tailor by Kay Nguyen and Buu Loc Tran from Vietnam. The short film compilations are to be screened on Sunday at 5 p.m.

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