Personally speaking, I’ve never been too taken by the idea of remakes. Unless the story taps into something pressing and resonant—delivered with form, flair, and a texture that travels—it rarely justifies reworking in another language or context, especially when the new ensemble doesn’t belong to the same school of emotional calibration. But then, some stories carry such unmistakable warmth, sting, and specificity that you almost wish a version of them existed in your own language and cinema. In that sense, it feels almost poetic that Yandy Laurens’ “A Brother and 7 Siblings” (Original title: 1 Kakak 7 Ponakan, 2025) finds its roots in the 1996 soap opera “A Sister and 7 Siblings” by the late Arswendo Atmowiloto.
The premise is deceptively saccharine—borderline melodrama, even: a young man’s dreams of pursuing his master’s are upended when he loses both his sister and brother-in-law on the same day, suddenly becoming the guardian to their children. It screams soap opera on paper. But the film turns that emotional scaffolding sideways. What emerges is not fevered tragedy but a tender tonal register more aligned with Koreeda’s cinema than Indonesian primetime. The result is a deeply felt, tactful family drama that doubles as a nuanced character study—one that steadily dismantles the myth of the self-sacrificing male caregiver. It uses its softness not to sanitize pain, but to sharpen it—to examine how love, even when organic and instinctive, can turn into a burden when it lacks collective support.
With equal attentiveness, the film unpacks the undercurrent of late capitalism—the illusion of work-life balance, the casual cruelty of responsibility without resources. Its happiness isn’t served on a melodramatic platter but built (pun unintended) from within the absence, from the minor joys tucked inside an otherwise grinding architecture of grief. It helps that the casting is uniformly terrific, especially Chicco Kurniawan as the ever-smiling, quietly crumbling Moko, anchoring the film’s glossy framework to something raw, precise, and textured.
This explainer is a breakdown of the film’s narrative arc, but knowing the plot won’t dilute the experience. The emotional intelligence of the storytelling stays sharp, no matter how much of the skeleton you see. So read on.
A Brother and 7 Siblings (1 Kakak 7 Ponakan, 2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Moko is a young architecture student living with his pregnant sister Agnes, her husband Atmo, and their children—Woko, Nina, and Ano. It’s a cheerful day like any other in their household. The parents send the kids off to school, and Moko heads out for an important graduate school interview. He’s accompanied by his girlfriend, Maurin, whose presence makes him both nervous and quietly confident. The interview goes well. But just after, Maurin receives a phone call from Moko’s home—Atmo has had a heart attack.
What happens to Moko’s family?
Moko rushes to the hospital, only to learn that Atmo has passed away. As he comforts his grieving niece and nephews, Agnes goes into labor. She gives birth to a baby girl but tragically dies minutes later due to internal bleeding. Moko is suddenly left with the responsibility of raising three children and a newborn baby, Imah, on his own.
What happens to Moko’s studies and job?
Unable to continue his studies, he drops out midway and begins applying for architecture jobs. But juggling the demands of parenting with work proves too much. He’s often late with submissions and is eventually fired. His textbooks will soon be replaced by baby care manuals.
What happens to Moko’s relationship?
His relationship with Maurin suffers under the strain. During a video call, Maurin excitedly shares her vision for the design firm they’d once dreamed of building together. Moko interrupts her mid-sentence to say he has to break up with her. He doesn’t have the words to explain the weight of his domestic reality. As Imah starts crying, he forgets to end the call and rushes to soothe her, slipping and injuring his leg. Maurin, watching silently from her screen, breaks down in tears.
Who offers Moko money for Gadis?
In spite of everything, Moko finds a rhythm. He raises the children with care, always smiling, so they can grow up feeling loved. With no money to travel, their idea of escape becomes spinning around Google Earth together on his laptop, looking up Bali beaches and opening pictures in full screen. Still, the exhaustion slowly creeps in. One day, Moko’s former piano teacher shows up unannounced. Desperate, he kneels and offers Moko an envelope of money, pleading with him to take care of his daughter Gadis for a month. He promises to return once he finds a permanent place for her. Though hesitant, Moko agrees when Gadis assures him she’s been on her own before and won’t be a burden.
What happens after Moko gets the job?
Seeing the situation at home, Woko—Moko’s eldest nephew puts his law school dreams on hold to help. Nina, now a teenager, experiences her first heartbreak when she’s dumped at a party—on camera. She eventually confides in Moko. Meanwhile, Ano starts harboring architectural dreams of his own. Moko applies for a drafter’s position at an architecture firm, where Maurin also works. Quietly, she nudges things forward, and within hours, Moko is being considered for a junior architect role. He reconnects with Maurin and finally opens up about everything. She offers him her laptop, but he insists he’ll buy his own.
The very next day, Ano is hospitalized with enteritis. Moko has to abandon his plans of buying the MacBook. His national medical insurance has also lapsed. Returning home with Ano, he tries to work on his old laptop, but it keeps restarting. Maurin arrives, food in hand, and lends him her laptop again. As she tends to Ano, the boy tells her he won’t mention future illnesses to Moko, because it worries him too much.
The following day, Maurin and Moko walk to the office together. He secures the job in Anyer at a modest Rp 8 million salary. Coming home, he finds his sister Osa and her husband Eka have moved in. Eka, who had returned from Australia, immediately begins asserting himself, questioning Moko about his salary and making belittling remarks. Though things appear to be falling into place—Moko even gets his old room back—he is unsettled. The return of a private space feels almost like a betrayal of the life he’s led so far.
A Brother and 7 Siblings (1 Kakak 7 Ponakan, 2025) Movie Ending Explained:
What does Gadis reveal about the children?
When Maurin and Moko go to work at a beachside cottage—their firm’s temporary office—they take the kids along with Eka and Osa. One of the cottage staff recognizes Gadis and tells Moko she’s a relative, offering to take her in if she’s too much to handle. That night, Eka delivers a series of harsh judgments: Woko is too careless to survive law school, Ano eats too much, Nina is reckless, and Gadis should be returned. He pushes the idea that Moko has sacrificed enough and should now focus solely on work.
Soon after, Gadis is forcibly handed over to the relative. Eka and Osa stay back at Moko’s house with the children. As Moko tries to focus on work, Eka repeatedly calls to ask for money, for things that increasingly seem frivolous. One day, while Moko relaxes on the beach with Maurin and a colleague, the colleague bluntly points out that it’s not Moko’s job to cover the cost of seven people’s lifestyle, especially when two of them are adults.
The next day, Moko attends a client presentation for the new family resort design. The client, Albert, disapproves of the design’s scale—he wants 30 small resorts instead of one big one. Moko defends his design passionately, emphasizing how large spaces nurture family memories. Albert brushes him off, and Sam, his colleague, warns him not to be so arrogant.
Later, Moko visits Gadis, now working at a roadside drinks stall in her village. She tells him—smiling, though clearly hurting—that her parents never wanted to keep her, and she knew her father was never coming back. In talking about being a burden, she inadvertently reveals that Woko, Nina, and Ano are working too. Woko at a printing press near his dream college, Nina at a theme restaurant playing a rude waitress, and Ano, heartbreakingly, at a construction site. Eka had convinced them they were financial burdens.
What does Maurin insist upon?
Shaken, Moko grabs Maurin’s car and drives to Jakarta. He picks up the kids one by one from their workplaces. It turns out Eka had scammed them all, running away with the money under the pretext of investing it. In a tearful conversation, Moko reassures the kids they are not burdens. Maurin agrees, but insists that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t support the family, as long as it’s safe and fair. She also confronts Moko about pushing her away, reminding him that real families show up for each other and that she wants to live with him. Moko brings Gadis back to Jakarta. She rejoins the others, who also reconcile warmly with Osa, now left in the lurch by Eka’s disappearance. Maurin joins the family, too. Together, they begin to reconstruct the fragile joy they had lost.
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