Sweet Dreams, the Dutch ‘surrealist satire on European colonialism’ film selected as Netherlands’ Official Selection for the 96th Academy Awards makes its US theatrical premiere opening at New York City’s Metrograph.
Set on a plantation in the Dutch East Indies around the beginning of the 20th century, the film offers a critical look at the Dutch colonial past.
Starring in the film are Renée Soutendijk, Hayati Azis, Lisa Zweerman, Florian Myjer, Muhammad Khan, Hans Dagelet, Rio den Haas, Peter Faber, and Verdi Solaiman.
Release Date
Directed by Ena Sendijarević, Sweet Dreams world premiered at 76th Locarno Film Festival where it won Pardo for Best Performance award for Renée Soutendijk; and beginning this Friday, April 12, opens for an exclusive theatrical run at New York City’s Metrograph and has its streaming premiere on Metrograph At Home, where it will be available for an exclusive one-month engagement.
Ena Sendijarević will be in attendance for select opening weekend screenings, including Friday, April 12 for introduction and Q&A moderated by The Future of Film is Female founder Caryn Coleman.
Sweet Dreams screens as part of Somewhere Nice: Focus on Ena Sendijarević, a four-film showcase pairing the breakout director’s two features with two of her filmic inspirations beginning April 12. Sweet Dreams and Sendijarević’s debut feature, Take Me Somewhere Nice, will be available to stream on Metrograph At Home from April 12 to May 12.
Synopsis
Set on an Indonesian island in the waning years of Dutch colonialism, Sweet Dreams is a stingingly sardonic satire observing decadence and moral decay on a sugar plantation, which is thrown into turmoil when, following the decease of its patriarch, it’s revealed that he willed the estate to his illegitimate son with his Indigenous housekeeper.
“Sweet Dreams is a film that emphasizes the banality of evil. It is not a conventional period film, but a stylized satire, one that presents reality as a magical, at times surrealist fiction,” says Sendijarević. “In this way I wanted to build a bridge to the present, to make a mirror in which we can recognize our current world.”
She continues: “With ‘Sweet Dreams’ I wanted to focus not only on the victims of colonialism, but on all different positions in this system. And thereby not falling into the trap of a victimizing gaze or too simplistic good guy-bad guy oppositions. It was precisely to illuminate the complexity of colonial dynamics that were the goals during the making of this film.”
Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for Sweet Dreams