In the Absence of the Sun 2014

Romance

Drama

Runtime

94 mins

Language

Indonesian

Directed by

Lucky Kuswandi

Made by

Soda Machine Films

Test your knowledge of In the Absence of the Sun with our quiz!

In the Absence of the Sun Plot Summary

Read the complete plot summary and ending explained for In the Absence of the Sun (2014). From turning points to emotional moments, uncover what really happened and why it matters.

Gia is a filmmaker who returns to Jakarta after spending the past few years in New York. Though she has returned, she no longer feels that Jakarta is her home. As she is unpacking she finds photos of Naomi, Marissa Anita, her old soulmate in New York who also returned to Jakarta, and decides to call her. They agree to meet for dinner and after bumping into Naomi’s rich friends, Naomi is engaged. They leave the restaurant and catch up as they take a walk and eat street food. On their way home, Gia sees a love hotel and convinces Naomi to go. They talk about what could have been and Gia tells Naomi they could restart with each other. After Naomi almost kisses Gia, they end up hugging and consoling each other. Their quiet, intimate moment against the backdrop of a busy city captures the ache of past choices and the possibility of a new beginning, even as the night keeps its secret corners.

Ci Surya, Dayu Wijanto, is a widow to a successful businessman. While looking through her late husband’s closet, she finds a note in his wallet from a love hotel with the name “Sofia” and a phone number on it. She calls the number and confirms that her husband had been cheating on her. She goes to the hotel and books a room for the night. Finding out that Sofia is a performer at the hotel, Ci goes to the hotel bar and discovers that Sofia is married and that she and her husband are escorts. Ci brings Sofia’s husband back to her room and pays him to have sex. She leaves a note on the bedside table with her number and her name. The sequence unfolds with a cool, calculated clarity as Ci navigates heartbreak, desire, and revenge, and it slowly reveals how power, payment, and affection intersect in a city that never stops moving.

Indri, Ina Panggabean, works at a gym and has a date with a rich man she met online, Davit. As she’s finishing her shift, she cleans the locker room and steals a pair of high heels. At the restaurant she thinks she’s been stood up, but upon meeting Davit she realizes she was catfished. Davit takes rude business calls at the table and tells Indri that he already booked them a room at the love hotel. Davit angrily insults her after she second guesses the date, she goes to the restroom, crying and comes back to find that Davit has left and made her responsible for the check. Unable to pay, she runs out of the restaurant. She meets a street food vendor who cheers her up, and she tells him that it’s her birthday. They decide to go to the love hotel together and take Davit’s reservation. They have sex and afterwards they talk and laugh, sharing a moment of connection that feels raw and unfiltered in the neon glow of the city.

This interwoven trio of stories unfolds in the flickering lights and crowded streets of Jakarta, painting a portrait of women who navigate longing, disappointment, and resilience in the aftermath of intimate encounters. The film uses intimate, character-driven scenes to explore how desire can both complicate and illuminate lives, offering a nuanced look at relationships, class, and personal boundaries. Throughout, small, quiet details—the photos that spark a reconnection, the note in a wallet, the hotel room that becomes a confessional space—fuel a contemplative mood that lingers after the screen goes dark.

In the Absence of the Sun Timeline

Follow the complete movie timeline of In the Absence of the Sun (2014) with every major event in chronological order. Great for understanding complex plots and story progression.

Gia returns to Jakarta and reconnects with Naomi

Gia returns from New York to Jakarta and begins to unpack, unraveling memories of a life she left behind. She finds photos of Naomi, her old soulmate, which rekindle a longing she thought she had buried. She picks up the phone and calls Naomi, signaling the start of a tentative reconnection.

Evening Gia's home, Jakarta

Gia and Naomi plan a dinner

Naomi agrees to meet Gia for dinner, opening a door back to each other. They exchange cautious updates, feeling the pull of what might have been. The plan marks the first step toward reawakening a shared past.

Evening Jakarta

Dinner with Naomi's circle ends with an engagement reveal

Dinner with Naomi turns social as she is swept into her circle's world, and by the end of the dinner she appears to be engaged. The moment lands with a quiet shock for Gia, who senses how social pressures shadow their connection. The evening leaves Gia wondering if the spark can survive outside their old orbit.

Evening Restaurant, Jakarta

Street walk and street food about what could have been

Gia and Naomi walk the neon-lit streets, sharing street food and memories. They discuss the possibilities that once hovered between them and acknowledge the ache of choices made. The moment deepens their bond while hinting at a fragile new beginning.

Night Jakarta streets

The love hotel moment and the restart conversation

On the walk home, Gia spots a love hotel and convinces Naomi to go inside. Inside, their conversation turns intimate as they reflect on missed chances and what a restart could look like. Naomi nearly kisses Gia, but they end the moment with a quiet hug, acknowledging a mutual but complicated longing.

Night Love hotel, Jakarta

Ci discovers her husband's infidelity

Ci rummages through her late husband's closet and finds a note from a love hotel with the name 'Sofia' and a phone number. She calls the number to confirm the betrayal, learning that her husband had been unfaithful. The discovery sets her on a cold, deliberate path toward confrontation.

Evening Ci's home, Jakarta

Ci confronts Sofia's world and learns the truth

Ci goes to the hotel and finds Sofia is a performer there. She learns Sofia is married and that she and her husband are escorts, exposing a hidden layer of deceit. The revelation drives Ci to take control of the situation rather than seeking simple vengeance.

Night Love hotel bar, Jakarta

Ci enacts a calculated exchange with Sofia's husband

Ci brings Sofia's husband back to her room and pays him to have sex. She leaves a note with her name and number on the bedside table, signaling a calculated exchange of power in the city’s secret economy. The scene unfolds with cool, calculated clarity, showing how heartbreak, desire, and revenge intersect.

Night Ci's hotel room, Jakarta

Indri finishes a gym shift and pockets a pair of heels

Indri, a gym employee, prepares for a date with a wealthy man she met online. After her shift, she cleans the locker room and impulsively pockets a pair of high heels, a small act of theft that mirrors the vulnerability to come. The stolen heels foreshadow the boundaries she is willing to bend tonight.

Evening Gym locker room, Jakarta

Indri faces a confusing restaurant moment with Davit

At the restaurant, Indri realizes she has been stood up, but Davit reveals he already booked a room at the love hotel and begins to insult her with rude calls. He mocks her doubts and, after a final insult, leaves, leaving her to pay the bill. The humiliation fuels a stubborn resolve to reclaim the night on her own terms.

Evening Restaurant, Jakarta

A street vendor offers warmth and a plan for the night

A street food vendor cheers Indri up, offering a moment of warmth in the neon-lit city. They decide to salvage the night by using Davit's reservation and heading to the love hotel together. The unexpected companionship sets a tone of resilience against the day's disappointments.

Night Jakarta street market

Indri and the vendor share a raw moment at the love hotel

Indri and the street vendor arrive at the love hotel, sharing a raw, unfiltered moment that contrasts with the ache from earlier. They have sex and break through social expectations, finding a small solace in each other’s honesty. The encounter ends with a quiet laugh and a breath of resilience.

Night Love hotel, Jakarta

In the Absence of the Sun Characters

Explore all characters from In the Absence of the Sun (2014). Get detailed profiles with their roles, arcs, and key relationships explained.

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

In the Absence of the Sun Settings

Learn where and when In the Absence of the Sun (2014) takes place. Explore the film’s settings, era, and how they shape the narrative.

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

In the Absence of the Sun Themes

Discover the main themes in In the Absence of the Sun (2014). Analyze the deeper meanings, emotional layers, and social commentary behind the film.

💔

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.

Coming soon on iOS and Android

The Plot Explained Mobile App

From blockbusters to hidden gems — dive into movie stories anytime, anywhere. Save your favorites, discover plots faster, and never miss a twist again.

Explore the mobile app

In the Absence of the Sun Spoiler-Free Summary

Discover the spoiler-free summary of In the Absence of the Sun (2014). Get a concise overview without any spoilers.

In the restless heart of Jakarta, three women move through a night that feels both intimate and endless, each searching for a sense of belonging amid a city that never pauses. Gia, a filmmaker returning after years abroad, finds the familiar streets both familiar and foreign, prompting her to confront the distance between the life she left behind and the one that now awaits her. Her encounters drift between lingering memories and the vibrant pulse of a metropolis that continues to reinvent itself, inviting her to rediscover where her story truly belongs.

Ci Surya, a recent widow, steps into a world where the echoes of a shared past linger in the spaces her husband once filled. As she navigates the quiet corners of her home and the bustling avenues outside, she is drawn toward places that reveal hidden layers of her marriage, offering quiet moments of reflection and the chance to piece together a new identity beyond loss. The city’s neon glow becomes a backdrop for her quiet determination to understand what remains and what might still be possible.

Indri works in a gym, where the rhythm of daily routines clashes with the unpredictable currents of modern romance. Her life is a blend of disciplined effort and the yearning for connection, leading her to explore the city’s nocturnal offerings in search of companionship, authenticity, and a glimpse of who she might become when the lights dim. Through fleeting encounters and hopeful conversations, she feels the pulse of a city that thrives on both chance and choice.

Together, their stories weave a tender, melancholic portrait of Jakarta at night—a place where bustling streets and quiet alleys become mirrors for inner yearning. The film captures the subtle beauty of moments shared, the quiet resilience of its characters, and the ever‑shifting rhythm of a city that both challenges and comforts those who wander its lanes.