Many Chickens, Lots of Luck

Banyak Ayam Banyak Rejeki (Many Chickens, Lots of Luck) is a hybrid film that documents the growth of critical perspectives in three very different Indonesian women who happen to share the same husband. The film began as an ill-fated promotional video for Indonesian street food icon and polygamist Arjun. The first day filming, co-director Önar Önarsson, a Swedish graduate student researching local sex rituals, was hit on the head by a large Durian fruit. After weeks in a coma, he awakened convinced he was Javanese, with Arab blood accounting for his light skin. To the consternation of co-director Riboet Akbar, Önarsson became erratic, insisting they take a “feminist” approach by dramatizing the struggles of Arjun’s wives in a public forum. While the event––provocatively dubbed the Polygamy Awards––was a huge success for its organizers, Arjun was bankrupted and the film was abandoned until his mysterious second wife re-emerged to resurrect the family’s image.