The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Glasgow Film Festival 2022

Yuni

Glasgow Film Festival 2022: Yuni | Review
4 March 2022
Andrew Murray
Avatar
Andrew Murray
4 March 2022

Movie and show review

Andrew Murray

Yuni

★★★★★

Yuni (Arawinda Kirana) is about to graduate from high school. She’s at the top of her class and is eager to get a scholarship to attend college next semester. However, she comes from a traditional background, in which deep-rooted superstition and religion hold a lot of sway for her family and school. In the small Indonesian town she’s from, a favourable marriage is held as the best thing for a young woman. And when the teenager is approached with a marriage proposal, she’s forced to decide which path to pursue.

It’s director Kamila Andini’s ability to gracefully navigate between the at times cruel world of teenage marriage and Yuni’s pursuit of youth and freedom that makes Yuni a captivating coming-of-age affair. Andini weaves both halves of the teenager’s narrative together with elegance and beauty. While the mention of mandatory virginity tests at her school and her classmates casually gossiping about a fellow classmate being raped are a solemn reminders of the bleak reality young woman face, shots of her riding through the night streets with a cute boy or walking alongside him in the park on a sunny day act as hopeful promises that her life could be okay after all.

Praise likewise must go to Kirana for what is a phenomenal performance. Subdued yet expressive, the actor keeps the titular youngster grounded and relatable, which goes a long way in shaping the course of her increasingly turbulent journey.

Given the tremendous skill and tact Andini shows in crafting and conveying this complex tale of youth and tradition, it comes as a disappointment that the finale resorts to over-the-top melodrama. The overarching message made is a powerful one – and the cinematography of the final shot is poetic in its simplicity – but the comically sappy tone of these closing moments drastically undermines what would otherwise have been a striking conclusion to a beautiful and tender coming-of-age tale.

★★★★★

Andrew Murray

Yuni does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Glasgow Film Festival 2022 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Glasgow Film Festival website here.

Watch the trailer for Yuni here:

Related Itemsfilm festivalglasgow film festivalreview

More in Glasgow

Top Gun: Maverick

★★★★★
Filippo L'Astorina, the Editor
Read More

Harka

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Rodeo

★★★★★
Umar Ali
Read More

Alma Viva

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

“No-one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance?’”: A rendez-vous with Tom Cruise at Cannes

Selina Sondermann
Read More

When You Finish Saving the World

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

“My aim is that the film is smart enough on the one hand to allow itself to be totally idiotic on the other”: Michel Hazanavicius on zombie movie Final Cut (Coupez!)

The editorial unit
Read More

Final Cut (Coupez!): “A love letter to filmmaking”

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Crimes of the Future: Three new clips from David Cronenberg’s dystopian body horror film

The editorial unit
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Andrew Murray

Yuni

★★★★★

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Albert Adrià reopens Enigma on 7 June as a “fun-dining” restaurant and cocktail bar
    Food & Drinks
  • Banter Jar at Lion & Unicorn Theatre: “An authentic and timely one-woman show”
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Three-Michelin-star restaurants L’Effervescence and SingleThread announce first post-Covid collaboration in Tokyo
    Food & Drinks
  • Crimes of the Future: Three new clips from David Cronenberg’s dystopian body horror film
    Cannes
  • The Road Dance
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Top Gun: Maverick
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Harka
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Rodeo
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Alma Viva
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • “When you’re presented with different dilemmas in life, you respond accordingly”: Debbie Kurup on The Cher Show
    Theatre
  • Top Gun: Maverick
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Rodeo
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Alma Viva
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • 2:22 A Ghost Story at Criterion Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The House of Shades at Almeida Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Glasgow Film Festival 2022: The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic | Review
Glasgow Film Festival 2022: Sarayak (Asteroid) | Review