[1] The film was commissioned for Peter Sellars' New Crowned Hope festival in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Siti (Artika Sari Devi) and Setio (Martinus Miroto) are a married couple living in a small village.

The events of the Ramayana are paralleled in the characters' real lives when Ludiro (Eko Supriyanto), a butcher who rules over all the village's business affairs, tries to seduce Siti.

Opera Jawa was one of several films commissioned by Peter Sellars for the New Crowned Hope Festival in 2006 in Vienna to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Other films commissioned for the project included I Don't Want to Sleep Alone by Tsai Ming-liang and Syndromes and a Century by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.