‘Sweet Dreams’: Locarno Review

Dir/scr: Ena Sendijarevic. Netherlands/Indonesia/France (Reunion)/Sweden. 2023. 102 mins.

The sour taste of colonialism is pungently evoked in Sweet Dreams, a largely accomplished second feature by Bosnian-Dutch writer-director Ena Sendijarevic. A change of genre and setting from her contemporary, European-set, road-movie debut Take Me Somewhere Nice (2019), this handsomely-appointed affair is a historical drama set “around 1900” in what was then the Dutch East Indies and is now Indonesia.

Bold, imaginative and sensitive

Featuring an outstanding supporting performance from Renee Soutendijk — a belated, welcome return to the international spotlight for Paul Verhoeven’s early-80s leading-lady — and strong production values, the multi-national co-production premieres in the main competition at Locarno. Despite problematic screenplay shifts in the closing stretch, further festival play is indicated for this bold, imaginative and sensitive tackling of themes still emphatically in vogue among arthouse-oriented filmmakers across Europe and beyond.

Divided into five discretely named-and-numbered chapters of unequal length (ranging from ten to 22 minutes), the action centres around a sugar plantation owned by wealthy expat Jan (Hans Dagelet.) He is long married to the imperious Agathe (Soutendijk), but has also long been carrying on an affair with attractive, much younger servant Siti (Hayati Azis). He has fathered children with both women: thirtyish Cornelis (Florian Myjer) back home in the Netherlands, and little Karel (Rio Kaj Den Haas), who resides on the premises.

Jan’s sudden demise immediately after one of his regular trysts with Siti causes upheavals for all; Cornelis is summonsed to take over and duly arrives with his heavily pregnant wife Josefien (Lisa Zweerman.) The independent-minded but fickle Siti continues to toy with the affections of besotted plantation-worker Reza (Muhammad Khan), whose mounting frustrations eventually boil over with tragic consequences.

Shot in academy-ratio by cinematography Emo Weemhoff (reuniting with Sendijarevic after Take Me Somewhere Nice), Sweet Dreams makes the most of a small handful of locations, prime among them the eye-catching interiors of the family mansion. A drawing room features lime-green walls and racing-green curtains; the chapel is decorated in shades of vibrant maroon. 

This convincingly lived-in setting provides a solid backdrop within which the torrid narrative unfolds; Myrte Beltman’s production design and Sophie van der Wel’s art direction consistently impress. The overall visual impact of the film, meanwhile, is greatly boosted by the contributions of Peter Bernaers, who has served as digital colorist on well over 300 productions. 

First among equals in the smallish on-screen ensemble is perhaps unsurprisingly Soutendijk, seen in a cameo in Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria (2018) but now enjoying one of her meatiest roles since her blazing collaborations with Verhoeven in Spetters (1980) and as one of cinema’s most lethal black widows in his delirious The Fourth Man (1983). 

The wily Agathe understands the rules of the colonial “game” — which at one point she describes as a matter of shifting advantage between the colonisers and the colonised — inside-out, having played it for decades.  Soutendijk, who delivers a fleeting masterclass in wordless reaction during Jan’s death scene, provides a much-needed streak of wry, dry humour whenever she is on screen.

Her retreat into the background when Cornelis (a two-dimensionally peevish role) and Josefien turn up is regrettable. Around this point narrative momentum is squandered and never quite regained. Although Sendijarevic does come up with an unforgettable finale for Agathe, it arrives amid an otherwise unsatisfactory climax that works more on the level of fable. In this way the picture’s astute dramatisation and exploration of socio-political issues  — around the time that pro-independence movements were beginning to stir — loses focus and edge, shifting dangerously towards telenovela territory for the melodramatic and predictably fiery denouement.