Sweet Dreams

Ena Sendijarevic’s second feature is a sharp-eyed satire of European imperialism set in Indonesia during the last years of Dutch colonisation. Jan, the dictatorial leader of the family-run sugar plantation, drops dead after one of his nightly visits to his Indonesian housekeeper. With workers on strike, his widow summons their insufferable son and his pregnant wife to the island to claim his succession, only to find Jan has left his entire state to an illegitimate child. Winner of the 2023 Locarno Leopard for Best Performance, Sweet Dreams is a provocative, surreal take on the banality of evil.