If a single word could sum up the world première of Satan Jawa, it would be ‘bewitching’. Indonesian Director Garin Nugroho’s black-and-white silent film combines mime and dance to relate a Faustian tale of love, sacrifice, and agony, rooted in Javanese mysticism. A twenty-piece Indonesian gamelan orchestra accompanied the film in collaboration with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; they produced a hypnotic score.

Satan Jawa tells the story of Setio (Heru Purwanto), a lowly villager who falls for Asih (Asmara Abigail), the daughter of an aristocratic family. When Setio is violently spurned by Asih’s mother, he ritually invokes Satan (Luluk Ari Prasetyo) – a spirit who was imprisoned and tortured as a child – to bring him material wealth and win Asih’s hand.