How a man’s affair with mother -in -law has become a viral movie

For months, the Indonesian movie audience has been talking about a movie: Norma, the story of a seemingly blissful marriage, broken by the illegal affair of his husband with his mother -in -law.

This is the kind of plot that would always attract fans of melodrama. But what made Norma a national mania is the fact that it is based on a viral true story.

In 2022, Norma Risma, a woman in the city of Serang on Java Island in Indonesia, exposed the affair of her husband and mother to a Tiktok video.

Her story quickly picked up millions of views, made titles, and eventually brought her a movie deal that took Southeast Asia from a storm.

Norma, which hit Indonesian theaters in March and Netflix in August, soon became one of the most watched films, not only in Indonesia, but also in Malaysia and Singapore, where there is a large population of Malay Muslims.

In addition, it follows a profitable formula that the Indonesian filmmakers have discovered: Adaptation of viral scandals in social media.

Until this June, the movie with the biggest summary in Indonesia was Kkn di Desa Penari, a horror history story in 2022 about the pursuit of six students who came from a popular topic of X. In 2023, Sewu Dino came, another horror of oscillation adapted from a story shared by the same X account.

Equally popular are the tales of a more tangible conviction: IPAR Adalah Maut, an Indonesian 2024 movie about an affair between a man and his daughter-in-law, was launched as a true story adapted by a Tiktok video. The dramatic series of 2022. Lyangan Puus, for a family torn apart by an exhausted husband, also received his inspiration from Tiktok.

Such topics are very taboo in Indonesia, where infidelity is punished with prison. The country’s new Criminal Code, which will enter into force across the country next year, Finds sex out of marriage – And in their most conservative province, couples are already publicly ignited for pre -marital sex.

But in this culture of religious conservatism, experts say, voyeuristic interest in household scandals thrives.

With the help of social media, the stories, which were mostly limited to the gossip in the neighborhood, now create a Pelacor viral content, Slana-Termine for home, and a commonly used keyword in videos, faced with their spouses’ lovers.

“With movies about these scandals, people get a place to look into someone’s household problems,” says Sm Gitta Tambunan, a member of the Jakarta Art Council Council, “the BBC Indonesian Committee says.

“Especially because of this conservative culture, people get even more curious.”

Veri, a 42-year-old hostess in Jakarta, has followed the story of Norma since she became a Tictoc viral. That’s what she made her “furious with her husband and mother,” she says to BBC Indonesian.

“When I realized that this story was turning into a movie, I wanted to see how cruel these two people were normally,” she says.

In cinema, she cried in the culmination of the movie when Norma woven through a crowd in front of her house to find her half -area husband and mother in the room.

The gentle scenes of the spouse and mother of Norma resist and then realize that their romance was scandalized and filmed viewers.

“Certainly, after shooting this, they will feel sick,” said a Tiktok user about a scene where the couple kisses. In the movie, a friend who finds the couple’s illegal relationship when he catches them in the act.

G -Gietty warns that these stories have a dangerous tendency to lift the wines most on women rather than cheating men. In these feuds between the legitimate spouse and the illegal lover, “The man is inclined not to receive punishment,” she says.

But what distinguishes the movie Norma is the participation of the protagonist himself in the creative process, tells the screenwriter of the movie Oka Aurora to the BBC Indonesian. She is also behind the IPAR Adalah Maut and Layangan Putus script, the two other Tiktok -inspired productions.

After intense discussions with the norm for her feelings and the background of her mother, “the main story of the film remains widely consistent,” says Okay, though he added that there are “certain parts that are dramatized to play with the emotions of the audience.”

“This movie is also a way for people to play emotions and have fun. So when they leave the cinema, there are things they feel and talk about.”

Today, the true norm works as an outsourced worker in Seran, her hometown.

Her mother, Rihan, returned home to live with the family after an eight -month prison for cheating. Roses, the ex -husband of Norma, was sentenced to nine months in prison.

During the advent of the film for the film in February, Norma said she had been encouraged by the messages she received from other victims of spouse cheating.

“When I experienced (the affair), I thought,” Why am I lied to by the closest person to me? Am I the only one who is experiencing this? “It turns out that when I spoke, many people have experienced the same thing,” Norma said.

Okay, the screenwriter of the film sounds the feminist message behind the movie. This is a “small step for women to talk about infidelity and violence they face,” she says.

G -ja Gietty says that films like Norma, based on true stories of home problems, can serve as a “space for empowering women” in a patriarchal society and give them “the courage to speak.”

Norma has declined to interview BBC Indonesia’s interview, although he continues to share life updates in his public social media account – to unleash the support of the Indonesians.

This month she posted photos of Tiktok showing her and a cake sent by the production company of the film. He was welcomed with hundreds of good wishes.

“You deserve the world,” a user wrote.

Another comment reads: “I am a norm, after watching your life story in cinema, I really wanted to hug you.”