52 Films by Women Vol 8. 34. Zoete Dromen (Sweet Dreams) (Director: Ena Sendijarević)
Pictured : Agathe ( Renée Soutendijk ), the wronged wife in a scene from the Indonesia turn-of-the-century-set Dutch drama, ' Zoete Dromen ', written and directed by Ena Sendijarević . Photo: Emo Weemhoff . Still courtesy of Gusto Film Distribution (Netherlands) In its most arresting image, Zoete Dromen (‘ Sweet Dreams ’) features death by sugar. Arguably many films suffocate the viewer with saccharine sentimentality, but in her second feature film, Bosnian-Dutch writer-director Ena Sendijarević takes the phrase literally. Responding to the title of her first film, Take Me Somewhere Nice , by showing the viewer somewhere not so pleasant – although the light does wonders for the skin – Sendijarević sets her follow-up at the end of empire (so to speak) in the early 1900s when a Dutch plantation family are driven out of Indonesia less by violence than an admission of defeat. ‘I don’t want to dominate,’ says Cornelis ( Florian Myjer ) as he arrives to take over affairs at his...