Mbah Jhiwo

The plot is archetypical enough to be perfectly repeatable. Yono is a sulphur miner from eastern Java. His wife Oliv leaves him, and he tries to get her back; his mother falls ill, and he tries to get her well. The story is unchanged with each repetition, though the three variations are hardly identical, as one of the belief systems that usually inform life together comes to the fore each time: animism, Islam and capitalism. Regardless of what’s being practised around it, the mountain spews yellow smoke, making outlines indistinct and boundaries blur, like Gurrea’s debut itself: a uncategorisable cloud of anthropology, parable, metaphysics, observation and collaboration. (JL)