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Director’s Profile

Kamila Andini is a mother and filmmaker based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her interest in social culture, gender equality and environmental issues is what drives her passion to make films with a distinctive story-telling perspective.
Her debut feature film, The Mirror Never Lies (2011), portrays the lives of sea wanderers in the Indonesian ocean. Her second feature, The Seen and Unseen (2017), explores a cinematic universe of dualism based on Balinese philosophy. Both films travelled to more than 50 film festivals around the world and received approximately 30 awards, nationally and internationally, including the Generation Kplus Grand Prix for Best Feature Film at Berlin International Film Festival 2018 for The Seen and Unseen (2017).
She also creates short films to exhibit her voice and vision for filmmaking. After Following Diana (2015), Memoria (2016), and Sekar (2018), her most recent short film, Back Home (2019), became part of omnibus Japan-based production, Angel Sign (2019). Lately, she has also expanded her directorial work into theatre. Her debut theatrical work, based on her second film and also titled The Seen and Unseen, was performed at Esplanade Singapore 2018 and Asia TOPA Melbourne 2019, and her latest offering is monologue, stage and virtual performance, Nusa Yang Hilang (2021).
At present, she is finishing her third feature, a story about an Indonesian teenager, Yuni (2021), which is an Indonesian, Singaporean, French, Australian production, and is also working on her fourth feature, an intimate film set in the 1960’s, exploring the rights and wrongs of a woman’s life. Before, Now & Then (working title), is now in the post-production stage.

Synopsis

It is 1960 and a woman, NANA, cannot escape her past. The war and conflict in West Java were responsible for the loss of her husband, who was kidnapped and taken into the forest. Nana escaped from the gang, who wanted to make her a wife. This incident also cost the life of her father, causing her to fall into poverty, and also the loss of her child. Nana still dreams about them, even though she has started a new life with RADEN DARGA. Life is good with her new husband of Sundanese high society, and four children from his second marriage. Even so, dreams of the past keep returning and Nana doesn′t know why.
Although Nana is now living comfortably in a Menak (Rich) family, life is not easy for her. Many people around her still consider her a peasant, only interested in her husband′s wealth. Through many events that take place in their house, Nana is made well aware that her real place is only in the kitchen, not beside her husband. Furthermore, her husband’s patriarchal values and lifestyle at the time mean he is involved with other women. Nana can only be silent, although little by little, sores appear on her head.
Until, one day, Nana meets INO, one of her husband′s mistresses; a woman who is different from the others. Ino enters Nana′s life like water, freeing Nana from her feelings like a breath of fresh air. Ino becomes the only one with whom she can share her past as well as her present. They support each other. Her friendship with Ino makes Nana′s married life all the more complex, until one day she runs into her ex-husband, the man in her dreams, who is still alive! Now Nana′s past merges with her present life, and she continues her search for what freedom really means for a woman.

Achievements

2022 Berlin International Film Festival - Best Supporting Performance
2022 Sydney Film Festival
2022 Taipei Film Festival
2022 Busan International Film Festival
2022 Asia Pacific Screen Awards - Best Film, Best Director
2022 Festival Film Indonesia - Best Film, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Art Direction
2023 Bengaluru International Film Festival - Asian Film Competition Best Film
Released in Taipei, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, South Korea, France

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