Tiga Dara
1957 film by Usmar Ismail
Tiga Dara (Indonesian for Three Maidens) is a 1957 Indonesian musical drama film starring Chitra Dewi, Mieke Wijaya, and Indriati Iskak. Directed by Usmar Ismail for Perfini, the film follows three sisters who live with their father and grandmother. When the eldest sister, Nunung, shows no interest in marrying, her family tries unsuccessfully to find a husband for her. Nunung initially rejects the advances of a young man named Toto, who instead dates her younger sister. However, when he becomes jealous and travels from Jakarta to Bandung to profess his love, she agrees to marry him.
Produced using government credit and written in an attempt to cover Perfini's outstanding debts, Tiga Dara was intended to be commercial despite Ismail's disapproval of such works. After it was released on 24 August 1957, the film was an immense popular success, launching the careers of its stars, earning the highest box office returns of any Perfini film, and being screened in first-class cinemas. However, even though Tiga Dara was shown at the 1959 Venice Film Festival and received Best Musical Arrangement at the 1960 Indonesian Film Week, Ismail considered it a compromise of his initial vision for Perfini.
Since its release, Tiga Dara has been considered a classic of Indonesian cinema, with themes which remain relevant for modern Indonesian society. It was remade as Tiga Dara Mencari Cinta (Three Maidens Seek Love) in 1980 by Djun Saptohadi and influenced Teguh Karya's Pacar Ketinggalan Kereta (Lover Left by the Train, 1989).
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12521420. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957, 1959, 1960 and 1980.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tiga Dara” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.