Sore: Istri dari Masa Depan - Lovely Romance Drama with Some Sci-Fi Element

After finding out last month on Netflix that this movie would be released on 8th of January 2026, I was very much looking forward to it. So yesterday when it was made available, I immediately watched it despite I was in the middle of another series. Without further ado, here's more on the film.

Brief Story Line

Jonathan (Dion Wiyoko - A Normal Woman, Cek Toko Sebelah 2 etc) was an Indonesian photographer who had been living in Croatia for quite some time and aspiring to have his own exhibition with the help from his manager Karlo (Goran Bogdan - The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, Fargo TV series etc). One day Jonathan woke up with an unknown woman beside his bed who claimed to be his wife from future named Sore (Sheila Dara AIsha - The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, Teka Teki Tika etc). Obviously Jonathan did not believe her, until she was able to slowly convince him. Sore's intention was to improve Jonathan's health style which was a huge challenge due to his bad habits of smoking, drinking and lack of sleeping.

So would Sore be able to complete her "mission" and what would happen to both of them? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

When this movie was released in Indonesia July last year, my wife and I were on vacation for few days. After we returned home, though it was still playing in quite a lot of theaters, sadly our favorite ones were always full. So we delayed it for quite some time but never really gotten ourselves to do so and ultimately lost the momentum. Hence we decided to just wait till it's available via online streaming. Despite taking half a year, I am stil grateful that it was finally released and got the chance to watch this film on Netflix.

The movie actually started off with a rather unclear direction where it was heading, especially the first few minutes which seemed to just show lovely sceneries in several location (primarily the arctic and Croatia, which I honestly mistaken as Italy at first). Anyway things gotten interesting with the appearance of the mysterious Sore. In the early stage, I just went with the flow until that scene in the cafe where Jonathan had lunch and I suspected of another sci-fi element. After a while, the film really sprang to life when we reached the end of "first segment" and the "second segment" started.

From that moment on, the main plot was much clearer especially since I found out the sci-fi element I guessed earlier was correct. As the story progressed, there was a greater sense of urgency and major curiosity of how it would end. In this segment also we got the feeling of how powerful the love Sore had for Jonathan. This was enhanced by the wonderful performance of Sheila Dara. Unfortunately though, I thought the story was written in a way where the focus felt emphasized on Sore's character with Jonathan less impressive. 

Now I read that the movie was an expansion of the short story by Yandy Laurens (Keluarga Cemara, Jatuh Cinta Seperti di Film- film) who also wrote & directed this film. Dion Wiyoko reprised his role from that series, but Sore's character was previously played by Tika Bravani. I never watched the series so could not make any comparison. But from the comments I read, people praised Laurens' ability to enhance the story. There were few minor support cast here such as Lara Nekić (Taxi Lhubav etc) as Jonathan's girlfriend Elsa, Livio Badurina (Novine TV series etc) as Marko and brief appearance of Maya Hasan (Till Death Do Us Part etc) as Jonathan's mother with cameo of Mathias Muchus (Tira TV series etc).

Despite the strong box office performance and praise from local audience and critics (winning four out of eight nomination in the 2025 Indonesian Film Festival including Best Film and Best Actress for Seila Dara), the committee for Academy Awards viewed it differently as it failed to be nominated for International Feature Film. Regardless though, I personally felt the film was very good. The romance was not the explicit show of love type but a softer kind where we could just feel the power (again from Sore's side). During the almost 2 hours duration, the color contrast was strongly felt with many lovely shooting location which made me want to visit Croatia (and also experience seeing real life aurora). All these contributed to the feeling of watching a beautiful love story. 

Although I thought it would be more sci-fi, but having watched this film, I was not disappointed. In fact I was happy with the movie as a whole especially with its pretty conclusive ending. So if you are interested in a romance movie with some sci-fi element, full of lovely sceneries and interesting story, then you should be able to enjoy this one. However, if you prefer logical plot with many show of affection and lovey dovey dialogues, then this one might not be to your liking. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars