Together with Minus, Joseph — now aware that he is infected — makes his way back to his hometown to look for a job cutting agarwood.
In town, they meet a prostitute named Madonna (Clara Sinta), who was sent to Papua from Java by her pimp after being infected with AIDS.
[1] John de Rantau was chosen to direct; it was his feature film debut,[2] although he had shot sinetron (local soap operas) before.
In Papua, they discovered that the area's permissive attitude towards premarital sex had led it to having the second-most HIV/AIDS cases in Indonesia.
[1] Mencari Madonna minimises its depictions of violence; Evieta Fadjat, writing for Tempo, notes that several scenes, including the one in which Yolanda is burned to death by her parents, could have been further expanded on, but were only shown as flashes.