Bitter Honey

UCLA anthropologist-filmmaker Robert Lemelson—director of an ongoing film series about facets of Indonesian culture—here examines the atavistic tradition of polygamy on Bali, an island where a patriarchal Hindu faith predominates and the subjugation of women is often masked in the eyes of naïve Western visitors enchanted with the popular tourist site. Lemelson interviewed women living in three polygamous marriages (some were entrapped into the situation) with men ranging in social status from a relative of the Balinese royal dynasty to a neighborhood boss in the cockfighting circles. While wives are initially cheery and deny any jealousy or bad feelings, subsequent visits over years reveal truths about domestic abuse while grown sons vow they will not repeat their fathers' vices. In a clever dramatic device, a running shadow-puppet performance illustrates the ills of polygamy in folk-PSA fashion. A fascinating exposé of trouble in paradise, this is highly recommended. (C. Cassady)