‘Enjoy Your Stay’ Premieres in Indonesia to Amplify Migrant Voices — SkimNews
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- 'Enjoy Your Stay' had its Indonesian premiere at Jakarta World Cinema after being acquired by local distributor Falcon, marking a strategic release in a key labor-sending country.
- Dominik Locher and Honeylyn Joy Alipio co-directed and co-wrote the film, which follows an undocumented Filipina cleaner at a Swiss luxury ski resort, drawing from on-site research with workers from the Philippines, Serbia, and Sri Lanka.
- Luz, the protagonist played by Mercedes Cabral, risks losing custody of her children and becomes a labor trafficker herself after being lured by false promises of legal status and higher pay in Switzerland.
- Locher and Alipio organized a special screening in Switzerland exclusively for undocumented workers, which was fully booked and received emotional praise from Filipino viewers who said it reflected their lived reality.
- Alipio insisted Luz not be portrayed solely as a victim, emphasizing her ambition as central to understanding why women migrate for work despite the risks.
- Close Up Films produced the movie with JBA Production co-producing and Be For Films handling international sales, following its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February.
Why it matters: Undocumented migrant workers from Southeast Asia face systemic exploitation in Europe, and this film gives them visibility on screen and in discourse—especially in Indonesia and the Philippines, where remittances are vital but worker protections lag. The filmmakers’ decision to screen for affected communities first shifts who gets to interpret the story.
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