Indonesian Director Edwin Talks Sex, Violence and Dictatorship in ‘Vengeance Is Mine’

The latest film from the South-Asian auteur, which premieres at the Locarno Film Festival, is both a tribute to and a subversion of the ultra-violent revenge movies that he grew up on in Indonesia in the 1980s and 1990s. Edwin has a knack for a catchy title. The first short from the Indonesian auteur, who goes by the singular moniker, was Kara, the Daughter of a Tree. It premiered in Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight section in 2005. Edwin’s debut feature was called Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly, a Fipresci international film critics’ award winner in Rotterdam in 2009. His follow-up was Postcards From the Zoo, a Berlin competition entry in 2012. But, title-wise, Edwin has outdone himself. His latest feature, which premieres on Sunday at the Locarno Film Festival in its Concorso Internazionale sidebar bears the straight-outta-B-movie rubric: Vengeance Is Mine. All Others Pay Cash.