Directed by Herwin Novianto, Rumah Untuk Alie (aka Alie’s Home) follows the life of a young girl who was tortured by her family because they believed she was the reason her mother was no longer alive. Alie’s Home has its heart in the right place, but the execution is where it falters a bit. The characters are depicted in a way that strips them of complexity, making them feel quite one-dimensional. What I mean to say here is that our ecosystem consists of complex personalities, where even the worst human being has traces of goodness within him. This mixture of good and evil is what makes a personality intriguing and their character compelling. But in Alie’s world, people are either too nice to her or they torment and bully her. Also, the conversations, the screenplay, seemed very superficial, and a lot of times I couldn’t make sense of the kind of reaction a character had in certain situations. I mean, people who hail from that part of the world would know better if Indonesian society is actually that misogynistic and discriminatory towards women, or if the film was merely an exaggeration of reality. For example, raising such a huge fuss just because Alie was dropped home by a boy seemed a bit far-fetched to me, but maybe it is a big issue there. Also, I don’t like how helpless Natta, Alie’s brother who was the closest to her and treated her with kindness, felt in critical situations. I mean, your sister is literally being bullied in front of your eyes, and if you don’t have the courage to go and defend her, then what’s the use of your kindness? Also, I failed to understand why Alie’s mother taught her to endure all the torture and not say a word against the family. The question was not about moral values here, it was about taking a stand for what was right. I hold Allie’s mother as responsible as the rest of the family, because being a woman, she should have known better and taught her that there was no honor in enduring torture. Alie felt that being subdued was an integral part of being a woman. My view might seem a bit extreme, but I felt the entire messaging of the film was problematic. That said, let’s find out what happened in Alie’s Home and how Alie endured all the trauma she had to handle from the people she called her family.
Spoiler Alert
Why was Alie blamed for her mother’s death?
Abimanyu ran an advertising agency, while his wife, Tsana, was an award-winning journalist. Together, they had four sons, and they led a quiet and peaceful life. Tsana got an opportunity to cover a war-affected area in the Central African Republic, and she knew how big of an opportunity it was for her. Abimanyu didn’t want her to go, and he felt that she was putting her life at risk. Abimanyu’s worst fear came true when Tsana lost her life in an attack that was carried out in Bambari. Abimanyu later got married to Gianla, the woman who worked as the babysitter for the kids, and the way this entire development is depicted, it didn’t seem like Abimanyu was all that affected by the demise of his first wife. Nonetheless, Abimanyu and Gianla had Alie around 2009, and it seemed that the family would be able to make a fresh start and get over what had happened in the past. Alie grew up to be a fine young girl, but she always had problems with her brothers, Sadipta, Samuel Nakula, and Rendra. They teased her and annoyed her, and Natta was the only one who was nice to her. Alie loved taking videos on her father’s new phone, but little did she know that it would become the reason for her mother’s demise. Gianla was driving with the kids when Alie distracted her by taking a video. Gianla met with an accident and eventually succumbed to her injuries. Even Sadipta was gravely injured, but fortunately he survived. From that day onwards, the entire family, except Natta, blamed the poor little girl for Gianla’s death. It didn’t occur to anyone that she too had lost her mother and would have to live with that trauma her entire life.
How did Alie’s brothers realize that she was innocent?
The brothers hated her so much that they never gave her a ride to school, and moreover, they had asked her to not tell anyone that she was their sister. Natta also didn’t speak up against his brothers for the longest time, and I believe his sympathies were of no use if he couldn’t take a stand for his sister. In fact, a girl who had a crush on Natta thought that Alie was trying to flirt with him, as they both greeted each other at school. Those girls made Alie’s life a living hell, but still Natta chose to meet her only in private, because apparently if he would have come to her defense, then people would have made all sorts of rumors about it. Let me tell you this: Alie’s Home tries to paint Natta in a good light, as a kind person who was there for Alie. But I don’t give him brownie points for being kind to Alie in private when he didn’t even try to protect her in front of others. Why I stated earlier that the narrative seemed a bit one-dimensional was because at times people were portrayed as being borderline demonic and downright foolish. There was a scene where Alie came to a science lab, and she plugged a wire into a socket. There was a short circuit, and then the school asked Alie’s father to remunerate them because they considered it her fault that the short circuit happened. I mean, I get it; you want to show that the girl was tortured, but this was way too extreme and illogical. No school would blame a girl for something that they know could have happened by mistake. Similarly, the entire incident, where Nazwa, the girl who had a crush on Natta, edited a video and reported to the authorities that Alie had assaulted her, seemed a bit too unrealistic. I agree kids are capable of doing that, but I couldn’t understand Natta’s reaction when he got to know about it. He scolded his sister for being a bully and took a very stringent stance against her. That righteousness went missing when the poor girl was tortured. At least Natta’s other brothers were hellbent on criticizing her, which was why I could still understand them. But Natta’s newfound righteousness didn’t make sense to me at all.
Anyways, Abimanyu asked his daughter to leave his house, as he felt that she only brought misfortune to him and his family. His business was on the verge of bankruptcy, and nothing had gone right in his life since Gianla had died. He pinned the entirety of the blame on Alie and asked her to leave. After she left, her friends, Aji and Selena, got their hands on the actual unedited video, and that’s when the family got to know that Alie was not the one who was bullying Nazwa, but it was the other way round.
Was Alie dead or alive?
Natta had an awakening of sorts, and he stood up against his eldest brother, Sadipta; he told his brothers how heartless they had become, and how they couldn’t see that their hatred for Alie had made the poor girl’s life a living hell (well, better late than never). A few unknown men saw Alie sitting alone and started teasing her. Alie’s brothers arrived at the scene at the right time and saved her life. Sadipta got gravely wounded, as one of those men stabbed him with a knife. He was taken to a hospital where the doctors told Abimanyu that he would require a lot of blood. Alie felt that it was the only way she could prove to the family that she loved them. She volunteered to give blood to her brother, and guess what, Abimanyu agreed. Once the operation was done, Alie left the hospital, and she met with an accident, as a car hit her on the road. I felt that she tried to take her life, as she had lost the will to live.
In Alie’s home’s ending, we saw that Abimanyu and her brothers came to her grave to pay their respects (which I strongly believe they shouldn’t have been allowed to, after what they had done). But then a twist came, and we heard Alie’s voice in the background, where she was talking to her mother about being at peace now that she was finally with her. She told her that her brothers and father were waiting for her. She said that she needed to have love in her heart, and there wouldn’t be any place for fear and hatred. In the end, Alie opened her eyes. I believe she was in a state of coma for a brief period of time where she imagined herself dead, and the conversations we heard happened in her subconscious mind. In my opinion, she did come back to life, as her mother had told her that she needed to go back to her home. Assuming she recovers soon, I am not sure what her life will look like in the future or whether she will be able to accept her brothers and father after everything that transpired. But considering how women are considered to be the embodiment of patience, endurance, and submissiveness, I think she will, though I think had they been in any other country, it likely wouldn’t have remained a family matter and instead become a legal issue.
