Yohanna

Razka Robby Ertanto’s latest feature, like his previous Cross the Line (2022), grapples with illicit aspects of the labour market in Indonesia. But whereas the earlier film dealt with the problems faced by migrant workers, Yohanna is a nerve-wrecking thriller that looks at the all-too-common exploitation of young children as part of a workforce. The situation is seen through the eyes of the titular character, a young nun whose faith is wavering. When the car she uses to deliver humanitarian aid disappears, her search draws her into the shady world of children forced to work long hours and in harsh, sometimes even dangerous, conditions.

Like Ave Maryam (2018), which found a Catholic nun falling in love with a pastor, and The Exocet (2020), which highlighted the dangers faced by many who live in Jakarta, Ertanto’s new drama explores the tenets of faith and realities of everyday life in modern-day Indonesia. With its echoes of Italian Neorealism and a stunning central performance by Laura Basuki as the nun who regains her faith in the most trying of circumstances, Yohanna embraces the political and the personal, gradually increasing in intensity as it homes in on the precarious situation of thousands of young lives.

– Vanja Kaludjercic