In the Absence of the Sun

In the Absence of the Sun

Year: 2014

Runtime: 94 mins

Language: Indonesian

RomanceDrama

Three women navigate the complexities of Jakarta, each grappling with personal struggles and seeking their place in a rapidly evolving city. Through a tender and melancholic night, they experience moments of reflection and connection as they confront the challenges of finding themselves amidst constant change.

Melancholic
Mixed feelings
Moderately emotional
Medium intensity
Slow pacing
Complex story

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Timeline & Setting – In the Absence of the Sun (2014)

Explore the full timeline and setting of In the Absence of the Sun (2014). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Contemporary, present day

The stories unfold in modern-day Jakarta, with nightlife and social dynamics that reflect current dating culture and urban life. The timeframe emphasizes online connections, rapid encounters, and the city’s constant motion. The period feels immediate and lived-in, grounding personal moments in a recognizably current setting.

Location

Jakarta, Indonesia

Jakarta serves as the film’s living backdrop, a sprawling metropolis where gleaming towers loom over crowded markets and neon-lit streets. The city’s busy rhythm and social contrasts frame intimate encounters, from quiet hotel rooms to everyday street corners. Its watchful, kaleidoscopic energy underscores the characters’ longing and the blurred lines between private desire and public city life.

🌃 Nightlife 🏙️ Urban landscape 🍜 Street food culture

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 09:52

Main Characters – In the Absence of the Sun (2014)

Meet the key characters of In the Absence of the Sun (2014), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Naomi (Marissa Anita)

Naomi returns to Jakarta after years in New York and reconnects with Gia, confronting whether home can still hold a place for her. She carries a quiet ache and guarded optimism, balancing nostalgia with a readiness to reimagine her future. Her engagement to a world of wealth and social circles contrasts with a budding tension toward a deeper, intimate possibility. She embodies longing, restraint, and a desire for authentic connection.

💔 Heartbreak 🧭 Longing 🌃 City life

Ci Surya (Dayu Wijanto)

A widow who discovers her late husband’s infidelity through a note and a hotel encounter. She returns to the hotel with a cool, calculating clarity, paying to confront the truth and reclaim a sense of control. Her actions reveal how heartbreak intersects with power, desire, and revenge in a city that never pauses. She embodies agency even when navigating pain.

💼 Power 💔 Heartbreak 🗝️ Revenge

Indri (Ina Panggabean)

A gym worker who gets catfished by a rich date, then faces a disappointing restaurant scene before taking control of her own story. She steals a pair of heels as a small act of defiance and ends up sharing a raw, intimate moment at the love hotel with a stranger who offers warmth. Her experience oscillates between vulnerability and resilience in the neon-lit city.

💃 Confidence 💔 Heartbreak 🌃 City life

Sofia (Dira Sugandi)

A performer at the love hotel who is married, and who, with her husband, is part of a broader escort dynamic. The revelation of her status adds complexity to the hotel’s social fabric, highlighting how desire and duty can intertwine in surprising ways. Her presence deepens the film’s exploration of intimacy, consent, and power.

🎭 Performance 💞 Complex relationships 💼 Power dynamics

Davit (Paul Agusta)

Indri’s date who appears wealthy and dismissive, making rude business calls and leaving the impression that money buys distance. He books a room in advance and ultimately shifts responsibility, illustrating how class and entitlement shape interactions. His behavior underscores the transactional nature of the encounters in the story.

💬 Rudeness 🏙️ City life 💰 Wealth

Sofia's Husband

Sofia’s husband is described as being part of the same escort dynamic, highlighting a parallel partnership in a relationship that blends marriage with transactional intimacy. This adds a layer of complexity to how love, loyalty, and money intersect in the film’s Jakarta setting. He embodies the shared burdens and complicities that the two outsiders navigate.

💑 Married life 💼 Power 🤝 Infidelity

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 09:52

Major Themes – In the Absence of the Sun (2014)

Explore the central themes of In the Absence of the Sun (2014), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

💔 Longing

Three intertwined stories trace what remains when past choices meet present circumstances. Each woman navigates a ache for connection that resists neat resolutions, revealing how memory shapes desire. The film uses intimate, city-scape moments to show that new beginnings can emerge from quiet, fragile exchanges.

💼 Power & Money

Desire intersects with wealth, status, and transactional dynamics—evident in encounters at the love hotel, the note left in a wallet, and the control exercised by those with money. The characters maneuver through offers, payoffs, and social expectations, testing the boundaries of consent and autonomy. The narrative exposes how power can both empower and complicate intimate choices.

🏙️ City as Confessional Space

Jakarta’s neon nights and crowded spaces function as the film’s secret-keepers, turning hotel rooms, gym locker rooms, and street corners into intimate confessional booths. The city’s anonymity allows the characters to reveal vulnerability they might suppress elsewhere. Light and sound become tools to illuminate private longing.

🕊️ Resilience & Autonomy

The women navigate heartbreak, miscommunication, and exploitation with a consistent thread of agency. Despite disappointment, they seek moments of connection, self-definition, and fragile hope. The film presents resilience as a nuanced, ongoing process rather than a single triumph.

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 09:52

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Explore Movie Threads

Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.

Movies about urban melancholia and resilience like In the Absence of the Sun

Intimate stories of loneliness and fleeting connection in the big city.If you enjoyed the quiet, character-driven exploration of loneliness and fleeting connection in 'In the Absence of the Sun', discover more movies like it. This list features similar dramas and romance films that delve into the melancholic lives of individuals seeking solace and identity within sprawling, modern cities.

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Narrative Summary

Narratives in this thread often follow multiple characters or a central figure grappling with feelings of isolation, identity crisis, or alienation within an urban environment. The plot is secondary to emotional exploration, unfolding through contemplative scenes that focus on internal struggles and small, resonant moments of human contact that offer temporary relief or insight.

Why These Movies?

Movies are grouped here for their shared melancholic tone, slow pacing that allows for deep character immersion, and their central theme of exploring loneliness and the fragile nature of human connection against an urban landscape. They prioritize mood and emotional authenticity over fast-paced plotting.

Movies with interwoven stories of women like In the Absence of the Sun

Complex portraits of female friendship, desire, and personal struggle.For viewers who liked the parallel narratives of Gia, Ci Surya, and Indri in 'In the Absence of the Sun', this collection highlights similar films. Discover other complex dramas and romance stories that follow the interconnected lives of women as they grapple with friendship, infidelity, and identity.

complexintimaterawunfilteredfemale-centricdramaticcontemplative

Narrative Summary

The defining narrative pattern is a multi-protagonist structure, where the film follows several women whose lives may or may not directly intersect. Their individual arcs explore similar thematic ground—such as desire, deception, or resilience—from different perspectives, often related to class or circumstance, creating a rich, composite portrait of the female experience.

Why These Movies?

These films are connected by their complex narrative structure focused on female protagonists, their serious exploration of themes like friendship and infidelity, and their mixed emotional tone that balances sadness with moments of strength and connection. They offer a nuanced look at women's inner lives.

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In the Absence of the Sun Summary

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In the Absence of the Sun Summary

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In the Absence of the Sun Timeline

In the Absence of the Sun Spoiler-Free Summary

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In the Absence of the Sun Spoiler-Free Summary

More About In the Absence of the Sun

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