Ave Maryam (2018) User Reviews

Very much nostalgic for someone who studied 12 years at an old Catholic school in Indonesia, like me

[Seraphion · 8/10 · 27 May 2023]

As my review headline stated, this will be very subjective according to me, my nostalgia to he exact.

I spent my chuldhood and adolescent elyears studying at a Marsudirini school in North Jakarta. It is an Asisi Fransiscan order school with a Sister as headmistress. They can dish out discipline and tough love like no one else, but they're all actually kind hearts.

The older sisters in the movie reminded me very much of my school's headmistresses. They too go to such nursing home in Semarang when their age caught up to them.

And the location's architecture and especially interior design details really is likw my school looked like. Tiles high on walls, faded pastel colors almost everywhere, that distinct style on doors and window railings, arching door frames and so on.

About the movie itself, I like how the direction kind of took a big chunk of the style of Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, telling its story strongly through combination of every element shown on screen and jot just theough dialogue. Thus the dialogue here fan often feel so very short, but it is sharp with less wasted words. I particularly liked the dinner scene, so creative and impactful.

The cinematography is a feast for the eyes, incorporating various angles, calmed color palette, and litlle camera movement which enhanced the aura of stillness commonly found in these kinds of places.

The acting was solid, the leads and supporting cast all gave out good performances.

Beautifully done, yet missing a big cohesive piece

[mademoisherl · 6/10 · 14 January 2023]

Cutting off Maryam's background really affects the perception of her character dynamics and leaves some pieces missing, primarily since they intended to show her inner struggles at the monastery. While perhaps the crew wanted to have subtlety as the main element of this film within the performance, the cinematography, and the dialogues, it unfortunately resulted in a lack of cohesion. The main attractiveness that pulls Maryam and Yosef is practically non-existent, some of the scenes contained rather pretentious lines than reflections of the wisdom from the bible, and the emotions only peaked in the third act after the slow-paced first and second acts filled with misinterpretation of "ascetic" with stale. On a lighter note, I hope this film will bring more ideas amongst Indonesian filmmakers, that religion outside the majority religion as well as cities outside Jakarta and Bali, can be equally beautiful on screen.

Beautiful

[deniash · 7/10 · 12 April 2019]

Beautifully written, shot, diction. Ave Maryam is about a nun who live in Semarang that has her confusion what will she choose, the love or the vows she made. The story just as simple as that, what makes it more beautiful is the story with beautiful diction. "If my heaven is not promised by, then why I bothered your hell?" --this line is my most memorable words from this movie. Also beautiful cinematography. Love the Semarang shot and the beach shot. The acting is brilliant by its lead actress, Maudy Koesnaedi. Her acting just describe her confussion, her confession, her sadness. This movie have minuses. The dub of the conversation bothered me, not exact naturally from the movie. And there is shot of a beach, the priest give birthday cake for the sister, with candle afire. Beach, we know that that place is very windy right, and the candle is not out! Wow magic! Over all this movie offers you different Indonesian cinematic experience. Oh yes, this movie also told us about diversity, love, confession and faith.

A PRETTY FILM

[cantikahafnil · 7/10 · 11 April 2019]

Maryam and Yosef's love story was complicated enough for Indonesian movie (based on what i've been watched). The religious tolerance part was pretty good, but i expect a bit more from Dinda tho.

The film is too short, the ending wasn't satisfy my heart. But after all, the plot is good.

Great Fasntasy Cinematic Shot

[yosafat_sitanggang · 7/10 · 16 January 2021]

Very outstanding DOP and great story, in very low budget (i beleive) in scene setup, such as modern car, and in train station its not like 1980's, its very recent.

A Beautiful Film

[abigailprasetya · 9/10 · 11 April 2019]

This Film is so beautiful with excellent cinematography. The movie is not a religious film (like I thought before) but a love story, a forbidden one, a story of lust and guilt. Sometimes love can be complicated but stil it is Beautiful. The performaces of Maudy as Maryam is awesome. She is "the star" of the Movie😊 and I love the set.. Especially when Pastor Josef have his orchestra playing at Lawang Sewu Semarang. Beautiful..❤

10/10 Poetry in Motion Picture

[tamajakz · 10/10 · 11 April 2019]

This movie is soooo good, top notch cinematography and performaces by Maudy as Maryam. Have a lot memorable scene like "the cafe", "spiegel", "beach", "stairway". I love the musicand the mood. I love the set so much too, i never knew Semarang can so romantic. This movie is beauty. Just go watch it.

A wasted potential

[blueclementinex · 3/10 · 12 April 2019]

I had high hopes for this movie, and it pretty much disappoints me. The only reedeming quality i could found is that It's competently shot. Other than that, it's so disastrous. I get what it's trying to be- it's trying to be the kind of movie where they told its story only relying to its visuals. And yes, at the surface level this movie achieve that. But the problem is the story and its characters made no sense at all. Now, this movie is about a nun and a priest falling in love. A forbidden love, because of their faith. This movie handles this so poorly. For starters, the way the romance blossom just so awkward and it felt so forced. And what makes it worst is how the characters had no chemistry at all. Everytime they're interacting it felt like they have no desire to be with each other. This made the audience had no connection to their romance or even the characters. I don't get the reason they are falling in love, because they had no romantic interactions AT ALL. Are they trying to imply that these characters just instantly being in love despite never even share any attractions at all? They never look at one another lovingly, they never even REALLY talk to each other, and everytime they have psychical contact it's so uncomfortable and i feel it as well. I try to reason with this throught the whole movie but i never found an answer. They have no strong or even any reason to even risk their reputation and taint their faith just to be with each other. And that's one of the reasons i also found there is no stake in this movie. Nobody also ever questions them, or being suspicious, or warn them about it. There is a scene where the mother figure of the priest try to tell him this, but it's going pretty much nowhere because at the next scene, the priest just continue doing what the nun told him not to. And yes, i get that they try to potray the romance by visuals as well, but since the acting is mediocre and the chemistry is barely there, i don't feel any sympathy for their romantic affliction at all. What i feel is pure annoyance because its characters are so reckless and unreasonable. And as i said, the acting is also nothing exceptional. And this brought a bigger impact to this movie, since this movie is trying to tell its story only based by the visual, which requires a great acting. These actors are okay, but they can't help achieve this movie being great. I think this movie could be better if it just stops trying to hard to look beautiful, and actually try to be a good, competent movie that tells a well written story. Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that all movies that only rely on its visuals are terrible. There are many that are great, but that's because they also have a strong characters and plot. Which this movie lacks of. Hence, i think this movie is better if they add more conversations between the characters, especially the main characters who we supposed to believe being in love, despite its forbidden nature. A recommendation of a better movie with a similiar theme- IDA (2013)

Awesome, Brave, Epic Film

[mariatulung · 10/10 · 11 April 2019]

An another film than usual, a brave story that was lifted from a religion and has a very good cinematography. a life story and can even be said to be real in the life of monks and nuns especially the performance of Maudy Koesnady as Sister Maryam and Chicco Jerikho as Father Joseph are amazing, so proud of them cause they did it very well. This film show us how an epic love story of an ordinary man who is not immune to his human desires, regardless of who they are. Last but not least.. there are many moral lessons that we can get from this film. Actually.. This is awesome film and i do love it.

Artistic no substance

[Calicodreamin · 4/10 · 3 September 2020]

The whole point of this movie is to be artisanal, beautiful cinematography and sparse dialogue. This leaves a lot to be desired in terms of character depth, musical scoring, and any kind of plot.

Beautiful Tone, great executed!

[gaphisafadelian · 9/10 · 15 April 2019]

The tone, color grading, and also the font reminds me of Lady Bird. TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY. Looks pretty legit. A movie that our nation needs. AMEN

A Brave Cinematic Experience

[zakiipa · 10/10 · 12 April 2019]

Ave Maryam embraces audience to enjoy cinematic shots with amazing character displays. Having to see the forbidden love story give an amazing angle to it. All in all it is a beautiful romance

The plot is too simple

[mkenrico · 5/10 · 27 September 2020]

The cinematography is good. But, i find a minus on this movie. The plot story is too simple, then unconsistence scene. Ave Maryam is win in cinematography and camera take. The acting is totallity.

We can choose to keep that Love or forget it forever.. 😭

[joshspidy_07 · 9/10 · 13 April 2019]

I was waiting for so long to watch Ave Maryam which tells us about A nun, named Maryam who falling in Love with Father Yosef.. Yeah.. That's a forbidden love.. But sometimes.. When LOVE come to us.. We can't avoid it.. The options that we can take is.. Decided to keep that feeling or forget it forever... . This is the main point that success make this become a tearjerker movie.. It is really hard to be Maryam or Yosef... . I really recommend this movie and please to open your eyes, heart and mind when watching this movie.. And still.. There are so many Silver Linings that we can take from AVE MARYAM..

A visual driven picture that Indonesian drama needs

[daryopeek · 9/10 · 15 April 2019]

While much of the hype around Ave Maryam talk about forbidden love between father and nun, within the 73 minutes of runtime, I found myself something higher than the acting and the screenplay. It's the power of visual and cinematography that able to speak louder than its dialogues.

The premise of the movie is quite simple. Sister Maryam who lives in a nursing home for old nuns as a caretaker must choose between her vow or love when she meets father Yosef, who shares the same feeling.

This movie's power relies on its cinematography that heavily utilize long shots, which capable of depicting Sister Maryam's feelings, her introverted self, about the rigidity, loneliness, and emptiness that fills the nursing home, to the audience. This narration is highly useful to replace Sister Maryam's words. Like a moving picture, most of the scenes play as a daily event but the shots able to be translated as our titular character's perception.

Another strong point in this movie is how tame the climax that goes with the slow and steady flow of the whole film. The climax isn't full of tears and music to usher the emotion, but the little or no music in the scenes along with few handheld scenes, able to convey how intense the situation is. I love how the director takes this direction, it's not everyone's cup of tea, but for me, it's a direction that this movie has to take to grasp its full potential.

While the story adds few interesting elements (like living in harmony with other religion, old nun's "jealousy"), the cinematography still unable to explain the resolution from the characters. My next question is the lack of authority that usually becomes the major antagonist in movies with a similar theme aren't shown clearly. Lastly, lots of episodes of multiple "philosophical" dialogues, were thrown awkwardly and make the scenes seem unnatural.

To sum it up, drama movies aren't new in Indonesia and how to seek audiences' tears aren't that new attempt. However, a drama that used multiple technical aspects in clever way to told a perspective and a story, gives Ave Maryam more than just a forbidden love tale people love to know. It's a living proof of a proverb that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Incredible film

[hakimsatrio · 8/10 · 17 November 2020]

7,5 for the story and 9 for the DOP. This film has a simple story but the DOP and cinematography amazing

a beutiful placid movie

[maryamuhh · 9/10 · 5 April 2024]

Some people complained about the lack of dialogue and i understand where they're coming from but this is a movie that you *feel* and not everything has to be spoken, especially something as "secretive" as this forbidden love. Nevertheless, beautiful cinematography! Unfortunately, a lump part of the movie was cut when it was released in the mainstream media (due to censorship) so a plot that i deemed has much underlying meaning behind them was taken away.

Despite never seeing the scene, the part where they both ran around naked could be interpreted as or a metaphor of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Often, in religious context, nudity symbolized purity and spiritual rebirth. However, after Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge, they become ashamed of it and nudity is then seen as sinful and indecent. Just like the priest and the nun who chose their Love over God in this scene- nudity becomes a reflection of their innocence (individuals loving each other) and indecency (them breaking their vows)

Religion and feelings

[hof-4 · 8/10 · 4 June 2021]

The scenario is a Catholic monastery for aged nuns and their caregivers in the city of Semarang, on the north coast of Java. One of the caregivers is Sister Maryam, and the subject is her forbidden romance with Father Yosef, a visiting priest.

The movie proceeds slowly and deliberately, with outstanding cinematography by Ical Tanjung (there is an striking Magritte shot full of meaning). The atmosphere of the monastery and the loving care of the old nuns is recreated perfectly. Acting and dialogue are as as minimalist as in a Bresson movie, but we are given a vivid picture of both characters (and also of the nuns and priests) through small touches, gestures and snatches of dialogue. We learn that Maryam is sincerely torn apart between her vows and her feelings for Josef. The picture of Josef is less complimentary. He is the director of a lively amateur orchestra, charismatic and outwardly kind but seems to be the one that initiated the relation. He does not fool the rest of the nuns; he is seen as an interloper and deeply mistrusted.

The ending surprised me and brought back memories of my Catholic education. What is actually happening depends on two questions: If the priest administering the Sacrament of Penance is in a state of mortal sin, is the sacrament valid? And, can a priest refuse to hear a confession? The answer to the first question is Yes. According to Church doctrine a sacrament does not depend on the virtue of the human minister. The answer to the second is No. Confession cannot be denied except if the priest perceives that the petitioner is "not properly disposed to receive the sacrament."

Script by director Robby Ertanto is precise and spare. Everything is essential. Direction and cinematography mesh smoothly to produce a story superbly told. Acting is restrained and moving. Perhaps music should have been used more sparingly.

I heard of this film as criticizing religion. If so the target would be the almost superhuman celibacy rules of the Catholic Church. Perhaps the Church of Rome should take example from her Greek Catholic sisters.