The author was influenced by the cultures of the west Sumatran Minangkabau and the Dutch colonials, who had controlled Indonesia in various forms since the 17th century.

Written in formal Malay and including traditional Minangkabau storytelling techniques such as pantuns, Sitti Nurbaya touches on the themes of colonialism, forced marriage, and modernity.

Sitti Nurbaya was written by Marah Rusli, a Dutch-educated Minangkabau from a noble background with a degree in veterinary science.

According to Bakri Siregar, an Indonesian socialist literary critic, Rusli's Europeanisation affected how he described Dutch culture in Sitti Nurbaya, as well a scene where the two protagonists kiss.

[2] A. Teeuw, a Dutch critic of Indonesian literature and lecturer at the University of Indonesia, notes that the use of pantuns (a Malay poetic form) shows that Rusli was heavily influenced by Minangkabau oral literary tradition, while the extended dialogues show influence from the tradition of musyawarah (in-depth discussions by a community to reach an agreement).

[3] Indonesian critic Zuber Usman credits another, more personal, experience as influencing Rusli in writing Sitti Nurbaya and his positive view of European culture and modernity.

[4] In Padang in the early 20th century Dutch East Indies, Samsulbahri and Sitti Nurbaya–children of rich noblemen Sultan Mahmud Syah and Baginda Sulaiman–are teenage neighbours, classmates, and childhood friends.

Upon receiving a letter regarding her father's death, Nurbaya hurries back to Padang, where she dies after unwittingly eating a lemang rice cake poisoned by Meringgih's men on his orders.

[b][11] Sitti Nurbaya includes pantuns (Malay poetic forms) and "clichéd descriptions",[12] although not as many as contemporary Minangkabau works.

[17] Sitti Nurbaya is generally considered one of the most important works of Indonesian literature,[18] with its love story being compared to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and the Chinese legend of the Butterfly Lovers.

[3] Siregar wrote that Rusli "in many things acts as a dalang",[c] or puppet master, occasionally removing the characters in order to speak directly to the reader, making the message too one-sided.

[21] Sitti Nurbaya inspired numerous authors, including Nur Sutan Iskandar, who stated that he wrote Apa Dayaku Karena Aku Perempuan (What Am I to Do Because I Am a Girl, 1924) as a direct result of reading it; Iskandar later wrote Cinta yang Membawa Maut (Love that Brings Death, 1926), which deals with the same themes.

The first, in 1991, was directed by Dedi Setiadi, and starred Novia Kolopaking in the leading role, Gusti Randa as Samsulbahri, and HIM Damsyik as Datuk Meringgih.