The final film in the Little Theatre’s annual Women’s History Month Film Series, “Marlina the Murderer in Four
Acts” is the Indonesian feminist outlaw western you never knew you needed in your life.
The film
opens as a gang of bandits arrive on the doorstep of the recently widowed Marlina (the excellent Marsha Timothy), announcing plans to
rape her and rob her of her livestock. A potent batch of chicken soup and a
machete later, those plans don’t exactly pan out for the thieves. But that’s
just the beginning of this story, as Marlina begins a
meandering journey to the police station to turn herself in, carrying the
severed head of the gang’s leader as evidence.
Aided by an
atmospheric, Morricone-esque score by Zeke Khaseli and Yudhi Arfani, Mouly Surya’s direction
ensures that the material is never as exploitative as might have been, blending
bursts of violence and deadpan humor into a stylishly stark tale of revenge and
redemption.
This article appears in Mar 28 – Apr 3, 2018.
