How a man’s business with his mother-in-law has become a viral film

For months, the Indonesian public spoke of a film: Norma, the story of an apparently happy wedding broken by the husband’s clandestine affair with her mother-in-law.

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

In 2022, Norma Risma, a woman from Serang City on Java Island in Indonesia, explained the affair of her husband and mother in a Tiktok video.

His story quickly accumulated millions of views, made the headlines and finally brought him an agreement that stormed Southeast Asia.

Norma, who struck Indonesian theaters in March and Netflix in August, quickly became one of the most watched films, not only in Indonesia but also in Malaysia and Singapore, where there are large Malaysulman populations.

He also followed a winning formula that Indonesian filmmakers discovered: adapting viral social media scandals.

Until June, the most profitable film in Indonesia of all time was KKN Da Desa Penari, a story of horror in 2022 on the haunt of six university students, which comes from a popular thread on X. In 2023 came Sewu Dino, another horror film adapted from a story shared by the same X.

Just as popular are stories of a more salted persuasion: Ipar Adalah Maut, an Indonesian film in 2024 on a case between a man and his sister-in-law, was marketed as a true story adapted from a Tiktok video. The 2022 Layangan putus dramatic series, about a family torn by a cheating husband, was also inspired by Tiktok.

Such themes are very taboo in Indonesia, where adultery is liable to a prison sentence. The country’s new penal code, which should take effect on a national level next year, prohibits sex outside marriage – and in its most conservative province, couples are already publicly whipped for sex before marriage.

But in this culture of religious conservatism, experts say, a voyeuristic interest in the scandals of the prosperous households.

With the help of social media, the stories that were mainly limited to the neighborhood gossip now make viral content “Pelakor”, a slang term for Homewreker and a keyword often used in videos of women confronted with the mistresses of their husbands.

“With films on these scandals, people receive a space to take a look at someone else’s household problems,” Indonesian BBC Sm Gietty Tambunan, member of the Cinématographic Committee of Jakarta Arts Council, in BBC.

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

Vero, a 42 -year -old housewife in Jakarta, has followed the story of Norma since she became viral on Tiktok. This made her “furious with the husband and the mother,” she told the Indonesian BBC.

“When I knew that this story was transformed into a film, I wanted to see how cruel these two people were cruel,” she said.

In the cinema, she cried at the culmination of the film, when Norma woven a crowd in front of her house to find her husband and mother half dressed in the room.

The tender scenes of Norma husband and mother resists, then realizing that their romance has scandalized and captured viewers.

“Surely after turning this, they will feel sick,” said a user of Tiktok on a scene where the pair was kissing. In the film, a friend who discovers the illicit relationship of the pair vomits when she catches them in the act.

Ms. Gietty warns that these stories have a dangerous tendency to blame women rather than cheating men. In these quarrels between the legitimate spouse and the illicit lover, “man tends not to receive a punishment,” she said.

But what distinguishes the Norma film is the involvement of the protagonist herself in the creative process, said the screenwriter of the film Oka Aurora to Indonesian BBC. She is also behind the script for Ipar Adalah Maut and Layangan Putus, the other two productions inspired by Tiktok.

After intense discussions with Norma on his feelings and the background of her mother, “the main story of the film remains largely coherent”, says Oka, although she added that there were “certainly certain parts which were dramatized to play with the emotions of the public”.

“This film is also a way for people to get out of emotions and have fun. So when they leave cinema, there are things they feel and talk about.”

Today, the real norma works as an outsourced worker in Serang, her hometown.

Her mother, Rihanah, returned home to live with the family after an eight -month stay for adultery. Rozy, the ex-Mari de Norma, was sentenced to nine months in prison.

During an appearance in the press for the film in February, Norma said that she had been encouraged by the messages she had received from other victims of cheating spouses.

“When I lived (the case), I said to myself:” Why am I deceived by the person closest to me? Am I the only one to live this? “It turns out that when I spoke, many people had experienced the same thing,” said Norma.

Oka, the film screenwriter, echoes the feminist message behind the film. It is “a small step for women to talk about infidelity and the violence they face,” she said.

Ms. Gietty says that films like Norma, based on true stories about domestic problems, can serve as “space for the empowerment of women” in a patriarchal society and give them “the courage to speak”.

Norma refused requests for interviewing the BBC Indonesian, although it continues to share life updates on its public account on social networks – to spring the support of its Indonesian colleagues.

This month, she published photos on Tiktok showing her and a cake sent by the film production company. He met hundreds of good wishes.

“You deserve the world,” wrote a user.

Another comment said: “Mrs. Norma, after watching your life story at the cinema, I really wanted to kiss you.”