Starring Titi Rajo Bintang, Henidar Amroe, and Ray Sahetapi, it tells the life story of Adjeng, who was sexually abused as a child by her mother's boyfriend.
Owing to its low budget of Rp 620 million,[a] its cast and crew were mostly amateurs and students, although several established actors appeared at reduced rates.
Adjeng (Titi Rajo Bintang) lives alone in an apartment paid for by her boyfriend, a rich businessman (Joko Anwar).
Meanwhile, Adjeng's mother (Henidar Amroe) handles various aspects of her life, constantly calling her and making surprise visits.
This has led Adjeng's friends, Venny (Ayu Dewi) and Andien (Fairuz Faisal), to tease her about her overbearing mother.
This background, as well as her recollections of life as a teenager (played by Banyu Bening) at the home of her womanising father (August Melasz) are worked into Adjeng's short story "Lintah" ("Leech").
[2][3] However, Djenar later chose to base the film on "Lintah" ("Leech") and "Melukis Jendela" ("Painting the Window"), two other stories from the anthology.
The group helped collect the Rp 620 million (US$75,000) needed for production;[1][10] as a cost-saving measure, numerous crew members were film students.
[14] The couple also provided the soundtrack for Mereka Bilang, Saya Monyet!, including three original songs – "When You Smile", "Someday", and "Love, Sadness & Happiness" – performed by Rajo Bintang.
[15] Model turned actress Henidar Amroe was chosen to play Adjeng's mother; Ayu later said that the role had been written with her in mind.
[16] Although worried about the sexual content of the film, Amroe accepted the role, calling it a "crazy" plot that "read like a foreign movie".
[17] Several of the established actors cast, including Jajang C. Noer, Ray Sahetapy, and August Melasz, agreed to appear in the film for less than their usual fee.
Sjumandjaja's films tended to fall under social realism, while Ayu's debut had more of a personal, symbolic aspect[4] with a touch of surrealism.
The DVD featured English-language subtitles, English- and Indonesian-language editions of the source short stories, and a behind-the-scenes documentary.
Seno Joko Suyono, in a review for Tempo, stated that the clichéd plot of family crisis became more interesting with the introduction of sex; he also called the climax "sweet yet disturbing".
as the best local movie of 2008, writing that Ayu had taken to directing like "a fish that had long floundered on the dry ground and was finally returned to the sea.
[20] In his review for Kompas, Adi wrote that Ayu had made a well developed and acted film, a "good debut for [Indonesia's] future director",[g] although he considered the cinematography incapable of fully expressing the character's psychological torment.