Set in Indonesia’s Dutch colonial era, in 1927, a young and beautiful woman lives with her sick and aged Dutch husband. This woman loses her own name and is called Njai, which means a foreigner’s concubine, and realizes that she is living in a kind of prison, while she deals with loads of visitors to her residence. Director Garin Nugroho shows in a distinctive way how much effort a woman, deserted both by the colonial country’s law and the colonized country’s traditional culture, puts in to retain her dignity. This film consists of one shot, indicating the story through the actors’ entrances and exits to and from the living room of the traditional Indonesian residence, and it also shows the flow of time through changes in lighting. In the film, diverse Indonesian traditional music and dance are blended, which gives the feeling of a traditional stage play. With these varied elements combined, this film depicts Njai’s life in a multi-layered fashion and at the same time breathes elegance into her quiet struggle. (KIM Byeong-cheol)