Dwi Sujanti Nugraheni

In the constant stream of hoping, failing and making new plans, Denok and Gareng stay united in their passionate struggle to make it up the hill one day. In the modest house of Gareng’s mum, these young, ex-street urchins Muslim couple starts a small pig business, looking for the lucky streak to come over the family. But new challenges constantly arise, putting their cheerfulness and patience on trial. In an entirely observational approach, ‘Denok & Gareng’ explores a strong loving relationship inside a strikingly vivid family that sticks together, fights back and laughs, about what others would call a Sisyphus fate.

For Ona, a young woman from the small Indonesian island of Kaledupa, the struggle to receive an education and marry a decent man is hard won. Her dream is to become a marine biologist and she has the drive to do it, despite no one in her family believing in her. However, her focus on her studies is interrupted when the man she is betrothed to marry is released from prison and rapes her, leaving her no choice but to demand he marry her, so she can protect the good name of her unsupportive family.