Arisan!

A huge hit in its home market, Arisan! is a compact soap-opera about the emotional travails of the Jakarta smart set, notable for being the first Indonesian movie to take gay male characters seriously. Puppy-faced Sakdi (Sudiro) is a successful young architect, desperate to keep his homosexuality hidden from his domineering mother and his gal-pals Meimei (Theo) and Andien (Nurmala) - especially when he finds himself in a romance with movie producer Nino (Saputra). Meanwhile Meimei learns that she can't have children and is abandoned by her husband, and Andien throws herself into one self-destructive affair after another. Laced with one-note satire of the city's nouveau riche bourgeoisie and decked out with a cutesy moral about seeing through shallowness and being yourself, this wins no prizes for psychological insight or political smarts - although a brief scene in a police station does provide a startling glimpse of street-level realities. Likeable, though.