Radical feminist heroines: Gender philosophy in Joko Anwar’s three films

This article discusses three films directed by Joko Anwar between 2015 and 2019: A Copy of My Mind (2015), Satan’s Slave (2017), and Impetigore (2019) within the context of gender philosophy to address the gender issues in the film. Joko Anwar is a well-known Indonesian director whose works are box-office hits and range from horror to drama, but typically feature marginalized members of society, especially women. Impetigore was the first horror film to receive Citra Award, the highest film award in the Indonesian film industry, as the best film of 2020. He was also the winner in the Best Director category based on the same film. These three films were chosen for qualitative analysis, as each features a major female character struggling against societal norms. This issue is examined by closely focusing on the films’ cinematography and mise-en-scène, including the shot types, camera angles, framing, and dialogue. The obtained findings reveal Joko Anwar’s gender philosophy that champions non-normative female characters willing to challenge the accepted norms and closely aligns with the concepts promoted by radical feminism. While his work emphasizes the universal value system of patriarchy as the source of oppression and subordination toward women, the main female protagonists’ performance continuously reproduces double meaning in the context of challenging patriarchal and societal norms.