Setan Jawa x Peni Candra Rini

A brand-new silent film with a live-performed soundtrack: SATAN JAWA by Garin Nugroho is an Indonesian tragedy about poverty, love, and black magic, filmed in stark black-and-white. Not a retro experiment, but a radical reinterpretation of silent cinema as a contemporary art form. Nugroho connects the visual language of German Expressionism—NOSFERATU and METROPOLIS—with Javanese wayang shadow theatre, masks, rituals, and mysticism into a monumental visual ritual.

The story is often described as an Indonesian FAUST. The poor mat weaver Setio makes a pact with dark forces to gain wealth so he can marry Asih, a woman from a higher class. But power comes at a price. When his ambition spirals out of control, love becomes a sacrifice. The emotional release culminates in an intense dance finale. Asmara Abigail carries the film with a physical, almost incantatory presence that makes the drama increasingly dark and urgent.

The film is not merely accompanied live but reborn through voice, breath, percussion, and sound as a second narrative layer. The new score is by leading Javanese singer and composer Peni Candra Rini. She revitalizes gamelan traditions with contemporary intensity and will be joined for this concert by musician Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė and by multi-instrumentalist and Prof. Dr. Andy McGraw (Chair, Music Department, University of Richmond).

This is a unique opportunity to experience this internationally presented work in Antwerp—as a co-production between Het Bos and De Cinema.

On May 8, we present NOSFERATU (1922), F. W. Murnau’s iconic work of German Expressionism that directly inspired SATAN JAWA, as a film concert with live piano accompaniment by Orfeas Demis.