Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts
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A widow poisons the gang of bandits who assaulted her and stole her cattle. She then sets off on a journey of redemption, but all the while, she totes the bandit leader’s head as a trophy.
A festival hit from Cannes to Toronto to Busan and everywhere in between, this “thoroughly enjoyable, visually ravishing feminist Western” (Lisa Nesselson, Screen International) is set in the beautifully rugged landscape of Indonesia’s Sumba Island. Director Mouly Surya mixes Sumba Island’s unique local culture with touchstones ranging from Caravaggio to Sergio Leone’s “Spaghetti Westerns,” creating one of Indonesia’s most talked-about films.
Surya’s latest feature, This City is a Battlefield, plays on October 19.
Director: Mouly Surya. Country: Indonesia. Released: 2017. Length: 93 min. Format: DCP. Language: Bahasa Indonesia with English subtitles. Image courtesy of Asian Shadows.
Venue: Freer Gallery of Art. Building: West Building. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free. Register in advance (recommended). Get Tickets/Register: https://indonesia2025.eventive.org/films. Categories: Films. After Five. Accessibility: Assisted listening devices. Captioning. Wheelchair accessible.
Friday, October 17, 2025, 7:00 PM – 8:45 PM.
This City is a Battlefield
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Director Mouly Surya has described Indonesia’s post-World War II years as “a weird story . . . full of sneaks, cheats, and bargains, but presented as heroic.” After declaring independence from Japan, Jakarta remained under Dutch control, triggering bloody clashes between the army and the resistance movement.
In this ambitious epic, a war hero turned violin teacher gets entangled in the resistance movement. He and his student prepare an underground mission to kill an important Dutch official in a bid to defend Indonesia’s independence. At the same time, his wife fights to protect her family while finding her feelings divided between the two men. Description adapted from Asian Shadows.
Director: Mouly Surya. Countries: Indonesia, Singapore, Netherlands, France, Norway, Philippines, Cambodia. Released: 2025. Length: 119min. Format: DCP. Language: Dutch, English, and Bahasa Indonesia with English subtitles. Image courtesy of Asian Shadows.
Venue: Freer Gallery of Art. Building: West Building. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free. Register in advance (recommended). Get Tickets/Register: https://indonesia2025.eventive.org/films. Categories: Films. Accessibility: Captioning. Assisted listening devices. Wheelchair accessible.
Sunday, October 19, 2025, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
The Wandering Princess
This epic historical drama adapts the memoirs of the Japanese woman who became the princess of occupied Manchuria during World War II. As a Japanese noblewoman, she is forced to marry the younger brother of the soon-to-be disposed Chinese emperor. The personal events of her life in Manchuria brings the political dimensions of this history to new light. In her first film in both color and CinemaScope, director Kinuyo Tanaka realizes with startling depth her ambition to relate a historical saga from a critical woman’s perspective. Description adapted from Janus Films.
Director: Kinuyo Tanaka. Country: Japan. Released: 1960. Length: 102 min. Format: DCP. Language: Japanese with English subtitles. Image courtesy of Janus Films.
Venue: Freer Gallery of Art. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free. Register in advance (recommended). Get Tickets/Register: https://nmaamatinees.eventive.org/films/68cd8be1e756fb800da132b4. Categories: Films. Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible. Captioning. Assisted listening devices.
Wednesday, November 12, 2025, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice
One of the ineffably lovely domestic sagas made by Yasujirō Ozu at the height of his mastery, The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice is a sublimely piercing portrait of a marriage coming quietly undone. Secrets and deceptions strain the already tenuous relationship between a childless, middle-aged couple. Her city-bred sophistication bumps up against his small-town simplicity, and a generational sea change—in the form of their headstrong, thoroughly modern niece—sweeps into their household. The director’s abiding concern with the intricacies of family dynamics receives one of its most spirited treatments. With wry, tender humor and buoyant expansiveness, Ozu moves the action from the home into the baseball stadiums, pachinko parlors, and ramen shops of postwar Tokyo. Description adapted from Janus Films.
Director: Yasujirō Ozu. Country: Japan. Released: 1952. Length: 116 min. Format: DCP. Language: Japanese with English subtitles. Image Courtesy of Janus Films.
Venue: Freer Gallery of Art. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free. Register in advance (recommended). Get Tickets/Register: https://nmaamatinees.eventive.org/schedule/68d41c9d79c71b92381f54f5. Categories: Films. Accessibility: Assisted listening devices. Captioning. Wheelchair accessible.
Wednesday, December 10, 2025, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.