Wregas Bhanuteja’s directorial “Levitating” (original title: “Para Perasuk,” 2026) weaves together spirituality, emotionally inflected personhood, and a set of delicate, complex rites. It’s confident, rooted in particular customs and rhythms, specifically tapping a world congruent with individual and communal taking stock. Bhanuteja calls forth shamanic rituals, the conjuring of spirits as dire but necessary emotional exorcisms.
Set in an Indonesian village, central trance parties embody heightened release and reconciliation between grief and purging, a willing suturing of the soul and possible conjoining of ruptures. This film segues between extraordinary tableaus of bodies suspended in liminal states, all perched on fantastical superimposition.
This performance is a deeply physical one, twisting and bending till a higher internal state is unlocked. Bhanuteja displays great style and swerve in its handling. The film frequently breaks into highly stylised visualisation in its trance sequences, the mundane realm splitting into emotional configurations.
As transcending these are, these moments also form personal reckonings. Whenever the film leans into these, it vibrates. For a spirit channeler to come into their own, they ought to work through their demons, a tougher, thornier subterranean tangle of guilt and bitterness. Bayu (Angga Yunanda) seeks attainment of the mantle of the ultimate spirit channeler but is held back by the bramble of individual misgivings.
Yunanda ratchets sincerity and ache as the tormented Bayu. He is certain about forging independence, that he’ll soon be able to provide for his father. But the latter can’t resist a developer’s proposal of selling their house and erecting a hotel. This ties into a wider fight locking the entire village. The Wanaria group has its eyes set on the Latas’ water spring. If their plan succeeds, the people of Latas would be endangered in their own home, inevitably pushed off their land.
Thus, the narrative of “Levitating” threads a personal tale of realisation with a collective assertion of self-determination. The villagers stake claim to absolute ownership, thrusting out capitalist invasion. Bayu is caught in the crosshairs. He wants to prove himself, that his mettle can actually fashion him a solid, respectable name in his community. But he must confront himself, turn from denial to acceptance. Of course, it’s a fraught journey. Bhanuteja stages this coming-of-age trajectory with mystical dissolution. The boundaries of the real world and the imaginatively transplanted blur into a heady, highly strung mix.
As a sort of leader, a judge, and someone who’ll guide Bayu towards his goal, the scene-chewing Anggun brings a tide of conviction. She projects vision and drive, a ball of visceral energy. The film gears into purpose and vitality whenever she occupies the frame. Anggun wields her stardom with pointed, powerfully singular direction.
The trance sessions are electrifying, fusing music into a sensory overdrive. There’s a gesture for catharsis, a gradual buildup of concentration and sublimation. It might have veered into the melodramatic, but Bhanuteja is firmly attuned to his story’s beats and temper. The film dares to exhilarate and be bracingly grounded in equal measure. Yunanda commits fully. There are protracted scenes with Bayu cascading into punishing dream states, going from a turtle to a bedbug.
Yunanda anchors them in a resolutely inner odyssey that feels authentic and well-earned. Bayu grapples with what’s expected of him, insisting he can do better, land on his feet. Some of the conflicts and tensions might be familiar, but the performances infuse them with genuine pangs. There’s the father-son tussle, weaving in the question of when parental support might be viewed as hostility or lack of faith by the child.
The mark of a directorial vision is when it persuades us into inhabiting and being curious about the shell of its world. “Levitating” pulls us in. Gunnar Nimpuno’s camera and Yennu Ariendra’s music are in perfect, throbbing tandem, letting the film take its dizzying flights. Bhanuteja knows how to orchestrate these sequences with a canny interplay of ecstasy, surrender, and anguish. The ensemble merges in as the planes of reality shift, dislocate, and crisscross.
“Levitating” is a full-bodied act of immersion, placing the self, the soul, and spirit in dialogue. For one to come alert and alive to the rituals, they must acknowledge the anger, the angst bobbing underneath. Bayu’s pursuit is mottled with such prising from within. There’s an elemental vigour with which the film is folded, flitting between melancholy, resignation, and insistent re-emergence. Life isn’t as dour and shut in as it might appear to Bayu, who’s defiant enough to chart his course only to find the grace of his inner strength. To patch up with his father isn’t to compromise but mature towards kinship.
This kind of film works when it fully emanates from a particular region and is endowed with its texture and cadences. Bhanuteja oscillates between sweeping, hyper-charged sequences of reverie and emotionally gruelling wranglings. “Levitating” pulses with the velocity of existential and physical submission crashing together. Bhanuteja dips into loss, trauma, and abandonment to prop up an affective, twirling series of elevated encounters. There’s a spiritual ascent, transfer, as well as grounded negotiations. The film pedals through these with visual razzmatazz and stunning musical flourish. This is an arresting, rousing step up for Bhanuteja.
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