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Loeloe Hendra pursued a Bachelor’s degree majoring in Film and Television and a Master’s Degree at the Indonesian Art Institute Yogyakarta. His short film “Onomastika” (2014) was screened at multiple international film festivals including Berlinale and Singapore and won Best Short film at the Festival Film Indonesia. “Tale of the Land” is his first feature film.

Tale of the Land is screening at Busan International Film Festival

The story takes place in Kalimantan, Indonesia. A conflict over indigenous land traumatized a Dayak girl, Maya, who was separated by her family. At that time, an old man named Tuha saved her from slaughter, and brought her to live on a floating house in the waters. As the story begins, she has been living afloat for over a decade and every time she tries to even step on land, she experiences a shock that makes it evident she cannot set foot on it.

by Tiara Purnomo

“Missing Home” (or “Ngeri Ngeri Sedap”) is an Indonesian dramedy about a Batak family, a traditional ethnic group residing in Sumatra, Indonesia. Pak Domu, Mak Domu, and their seemingly harmonious family are regarded as reputable by everyone in their humble village in Toba, North Sumatra. But, behind the facade, the couple struggles to keep their family’s honor and relationship afloat.

Where to watch

Right at the start, we are introduced to Sarma, their daughter, and their three estranged sons: Domu who is arguing with his father over his plan to marry a Sundanese girl, Gabe who is disappointed over his father’s disapproval of his career choice, and Sahat who chooses to live away from his parents. When an upcoming traditional event approaches, Pak Domu and Mak Domu must convince their sons to visit home by creating a big crisis to get the family’s attention: divorce.

Grave Torture is a brand-new Indonesian Netflix Original that is a psychological horror film that explores the themes of death, sin, the afterlife, radicalism, mental health, and abuse. All of these aspects are found in the stories of the characters of the film, which is extensively covered by the writer and director Joko Anwar.

Sita

Faradina Mufti and Widuri Puteri, both actors, portray the roles of older and younger Sita, respectively, in Grave Torture. Sita was the one who was most deeply affected by the death of her parents, as she witnessed them being killed by a suicide bomber. The young girl is disturbed to learn of grave torture, the reason behind the suicide bomber’s radicalization. Sita never processed the pain of losing her parents, and quickly jumped into debunking grave torture theories. As she refuses to get radicalized in the Islamic boarding school, she finds a way out...

The Toronto Film Festival’s cult sidebar will screen 10 features as part of this year’s schedule and open with the North American premiere of French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s buzzy Cannes breakout The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.

The Midnight Madness programme features five world premieres all of which will screen at Toronto’s historic — and allegedly haunted — Royal Alexandra Theatre. Fargeat is a TIFF Midnight Madness alumnus. Her first feature Revenge debuted at the festival in 2017. Also returning to the festival this year is Joseph Kahn with Ick. Written by Sam Laskey, Dan Koontz, and Kahn, the film’s synopsis reads: Science teacher Hank’s life changes when he reconnects with his first love and suspects a new student is his daughter, all while facing an alien threat in their town. Kahn won TIFF’s People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award in 2017 with Bodied.

Indonesian filmmaker...

Indonesia has selected Makbul Mubarak’s award-winning drama Autobiography as its submission in the Best International Feature category of the Oscars.

Selected from a pool of 100 films, Autobiography was handpicked by a nine-person committee, established by the Indonesian Film Companies Union.

Set in a rural Indonesian town, the film tells the story of a young man who works as a housekeeper in an empty mansion belonging to a retired general. When the general returns to the town to start his mayoral campaign, an act of vandalism triggers an escalating chain of violence. Kevin Ardilova and award-winning veteran actor Arswendy Bening Swara head the cast.

The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2022, where it won the Fipresci award, then went on to screen at more than 50 international festivals. It also won awards including the Grand Prize at Tokyo Filmex, Best Screenplay at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards,...

"Why is it that guilt always follows women?" Film Movement has unveiled their official US trailer for the acclaimed indie film from Indonesia titled Before, Now & Then, made by Indonesian filmmaker Kamila Andini. This first premiered at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival last year, and it also played at the Vancouver, Busan, and Philadelphia Film Fests. The story follows Raden Nana Suhani, as played by Happy Salma, a Sundanese woman in the 1960s, who lost a father & son to the war in West Java. She remarried as a second wife to a Sundanese man to start a new life with a man who was rich but always looked down on her. Nana suffers in silence... Until one day, she became friends with one of her husband's mistresses and everything changes. Together, these two women seek hope for independence. Framed by elegant cinematography and a lush score, Before, Now & Then is a lyrical,...

Indonesian genre specialist Timo Tjahjanto has begun production on “The Shadow Strays,” a new action film project.

Tjahjanto is one half of a writing-directing pair with Kimo Stamboel that are colloquially known as the Mo Brothers and previously delivered “Headshot.” However, it was as a solo director that Tjahjanto was signed to a multi-film deal with Netflix in 2022. He delivered his first picture under that arrangement later that year. “The Big 4” debuted in Netflix’s non-English language top ten.

Production of the new title is handled by Frontier Pictures with Wicky V. Olindo and Anne P. Ralie named as producers. The completion date has not been revealed.

Tjahjanto has assembled a kicking ensemble cast, many of whom previously appeared in “The Big 4.” The cast includes Aurora Ribero, Hana Malasan (“Ben & Jody”), Ali Fikri, Adipati Dolken, Kristo Immanuel (“The Big 4”), Andri Mashadi, Taskya Namya (“Waktu Maghrib”), Agra Piliang,...

Netflix has announced a second feature film with Indonesian action director Timo Tjahjanto, The Shadow Strays, starring a large ensemble cast of popular young actors.

Tjahjanto previously worked with Netflix on The Big 4, which charted on Netflix’s Global Top 10 Non-English Films chart in the first week of its release.

Currently in production, The Shadow Strays stars Aurora Ribero (Like & Share), Hana Malasan (Ben & Jody), Ali Fikri (Nussa), Adipati Dolken (Posesif) and reteams Tjahjanto with The Big 4 actors Kristo Immanuel and Andri Mashadi.

The film also stars Malaysian actor Chew Kin Wah and veteran Indonesian actor Arswendy Bening Swara, who has recently won multiple awards for Autobiography and Missing Home. Production is through Frontier Pictures with Wicky V. Olindo and Anne P. Ralie on board as producers.

Tjahjanto is also known for hit action films such as The Night Comes For Us and May the Devil Take You,...

Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service has acquired Makbul Mubarak’s award-winning debut feature, “Autobiography,” for the Southeast Asian region.

The film, which is being sold by Alpha Violet, follows young Rakib (Kevin Ardilova), whose father is in prison and whose brother works abroad. He works as the housekeeper in a mansion in a rural Indonesian town belonging to retired general Purna (Arswendy Bening Swara). Purna returns to the town to start his mayoral election campaign and Rakib, whose clan has worked for the general’s family for centuries, serves as his assistant. An act of vandalism during the campaign triggers an escalating chain of violence.

The film debuted in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizon’s strand in 2022, where it won the Fipresci prize and has been on an award-winning spree since, winning at Tokyo, Adelaide, Singapore, Marrakech, Taipei Golden Horse, Stockholm, Bangkok, Hainan and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Makbul Mubarak is a former film critic turned filmmaker, who has shot several acclaimed shorts before “Autobiography”, his feature debut which is premiering today in the Orrizonti section of Venice. Mubarak grew up in Indonesia during the latter days of the dictatorship, which lasted from 1966-1998, and describes the film as an“emotional investigation” into his childhood.

“Autobiography” is screening at Across Asia Film Festival

Rakib, a young man, is living on his own, as his father is in prison and his brother abroad for work. Eventually, Purna, a retired general whose family Rakib’s clan have served for centuries in a rural Indonesian town, comes to him and essentially forces him to be his assistant, living with him in his mansion, driving him around as he is campaigning for the next election, and doing whatever deed the older man assigns. An initially reluctant Rakim finds himself more and more attached to Purna,...

Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi’s story of brotherly bonds and criminal excess “A Tale of Shemroon” took home top honors at the Marrakech Film Festival on Saturday, closing out a 19th edition that saw a robust and welcome return to in-person events after two year’s of pandemic-forced delays.

Dehkordi’s feature debut follows a pair of brothers pulled deeper into the drug trade as they supply any number of illegal thrills to Tehran’s wealthy and hard-partying youths. While remaining a family drama above all, the Marrakech winner certainly evokes the simmering ennui felt by a young generation of Iranians and now boiling over into protest and rage on the real streets of Tehran.

Visibly moved, director Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi’s collected his Etoile d’Or by dedicating the prize to “all the Iranians fighting for their freedoms, to those who are faced with death sentences. This award is for...

Iranian director Emad Aleebrahim-Dehkordi’s feature directorial debut A Tale Of Shemroon won the top Étoile d’Or—the Festival Grand Prize – at the Marrakech International Film Festival on Saturday.

The feature, which was among 14 first and second films competing in the festival’s main competition, world premiered in the San Sebastian’s New Directors section earlier this year.

Set in contemporary Tehran, the timely work revolves around two brothers living with their invalid father, and still reeling from their mother’s death.

The older brother hits on a moneymaking scheme to break out of the family’s humdrum existence which brings him to contact with the city’s gilded youth, but things do not go to plan.

Oscar-winning Italian director Paolo Sorrentino was president of the jury this year, joined by British actress Vanessa Kirby German actor Diane Kruger Australian director Justin Kurzel, Lebanese director and actor Nadine Labaki,...

In a gated compound camouflaged by the thick, dripping vegetation of inland Indonesia, all is quiet. A curtain may stir. The hushed commentary on a TV chess match may mutter indistinctly. An insect or two may chirrup. But mostly, this dark-cornered, sinister place, which is being minded by callow young caretaker Rakib (Kevin Ardilova), feels eerily still and expectant, like a spiderweb waiting for the return of its spider. Makbul Mubarak’s “Autobiography” — the Indonesian filmmaker’s impressive debut — gives a “Godfather”-style, power-corrupting-the-naive story the Conradian overtones of “Apocalypse Now.” But with its powerful sense of mood, it emerges from Coppola’s shadow by summoning evocative, specific shadows of its own, out of Indonesia’s troubled, genocidal, terrifying past.

The spider returns. General Purna (Arswendy Bening Swara), recently a towering figure in the military dictatorship, has retired and is coming home to run for Mayor of the region. Rakib,...

General Purna (Arswendy Bening Swara) never had a son, so returning to his mansion to ready for a reelection campaign makes him grow sentimental at the sight of young Rakib (Kevin Ardilova). The boy is the youngest son of Amir (Rukman Rosadi)—a man Purna calls a “friend” despite their relationship truly being one of employer and employee. It’s been that way for three generations with Amir’s father serving Purna’s father, grandfather for grandfather. So, no matter how progressive the nation believes itself to have become, the townsfolk still fear what Purna represents. And if that authority allows Rakib a comfy existence as his servant/chauffeur, why not make the best of it?

Writer/director Makbul Mubarak titles his portrayal of these two men Autobiography not because their story mimics his own, but because he’s wielding the film as a metaphor for the autobiography of his homeland.

“It’s a big time for us,” said Indonesian filmmaker Makbul Mubarak, whose debut feature has just premiered in the Orizzonti section of the 79th La Biennale di Venezia and is currently being showcased in Toronto. After Edwin, Kamila Andini, and Mouly Sourya, Mubarak is another Indonesian filmmaker whose presence at the international festival was well-noted and his “Autobiography” was granted a Fipresci award. Mubarak, formerly an established film critic and a director of two short films, prepared his “Autobiography” through a formula that many seem to follow these days. With the opening credits of the film, what lights up is a number of co-production projects and script labs – including the one in Torino – friendly reminding of the international nature of the project.

Indeed, the co-production opportunities seem to be on the rise for Indonesia – after the international successes of the aforementioned filmmakers, there is definitely a possibility window for...

Forget the overly poetic title, Makbul Mubarak’s terrific Indonesian thriller Autobiography — which premieres in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section — is a genuine discovery here, a taut and elegantly staged two-hander that transcends regional politics to make a profound comment on the state of the world today.

American arthouse audiences should be especially receptive to its riveting portrayal of a charismatic candidate running for mayoral office whose populist image masks a very fragile ego and a desire to maintain absolute power at any cost.

The story unfolds from the viewpoint of Rakib (Kevin Ardilova), the young caretaker of an empty mansion owned by Purna (Arswendy Bening Swara), a retired general. Rakib’s family has been in service to Purna’s ancestors for generations, but, with his father in prison and his brother abroad, he’s the last of his clan to be forced into subservience.

When Purna suddenly...

Makbul Mubarak is a former film critic turned filmmaker, who has shot several acclaimed shorts before “Autobiography”, his feature debut which is premiering today in the Orrizonti section of Venice. Mubarak grew up in Indonesia during the latter days of the dictatorship, which lasted from 1966-1998, and describes the film as an“emotional investigation” into his childhood.

Autobiogarphy is screening at Venice International Film Festival

Rakib, a young man, is living on his own, as his father is in prison and his brother abroad for work. Eventually, Purna, a retired general whose family Rakib’s clan have served for centuries in a rural Indonesian town, comes to him and essentially forces him to be his assistant, living with him in his mansion, driving him around as he is campaigning for the next election, and doing whatever deed the older man assigns. An initially reluctant Rakim finds himself more and more attached to Purna,...

Feature debutant Makbul Mubarak’s “Autobiography,” which premieres in Venice’s Horizons strand on Saturday, is a deeply personal tale informed by his own experiences.

The film, which is being sold by Alpha Violet, follows young Rakib (Kevin Ardilova), whose father is in prison and whose brother works abroad. He works as the housekeeper in a mansion in a rural Indonesian town belonging to retired general Purna (Arswendy Bening Swara). Purna returns to the town to start his mayoral election campaign and Rakib, whose clan has worked for the general’s family for centuries, serves as his assistant. An act of vandalism during the campaign triggers an escalating chain of violence.

Mubarak, formerly a film critic, made several acclaimed shorts before embarking on the aptly titled “Autobiography,” which he describes an “emotional investigation” into his childhood. He grew up in Indonesia during the latter days of the dictatorship, which lasted...

Indonesia’s Makbul Mubarak is making quite a splash with his debut feature “Autobiography,” which is world premiering at Venice’s Horizons strand and then playing at Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema section.

The film, which examines the effects of Indonesia’s military dictatorship on the country’s youth, follows a young man torn between loyalty and justice who confronts the truth of his father figure — a retired general — that may destroy them both.

Mubarak, film critic-turned-filmmaker and a Berlinale Talents and Asian Film Academy alumni, previously directed acclaimed short films “The Dog’s Lullaby” (2016), “Malediction” (2017) and “A Plastic Cup of Tea Before Her” (2018).

The cast includes Kevin Ardilova, Arswendy Bening Swara, Yusuf Mahardika, Lukman Sardi and Haru Sandra.

” ‘Autobiography’ is a story very specific to Indonesia because it addresses the legacy of our history, but at the same time, it also addresses the world we are co-existing in now: the heavy price of ignorance,...

In Before, Now & Then the social and political upheavals of 1960s Indonesia provide a hardened backbone to what is otherwise a tale of longing and simmering romance. It’s the fifth work by Kamila Andini, an Indonesian filmmaker whose dreamy 2017 film Seen and Unseen became a festival darling, screening in Berlin and Toronto that year to acclaim. Before, Now & Then sees her return to the German capital––premiering in competition this week, a sharp ascendency––with her most ambitious film yet. Drawing a number of deeply felt performances from her cast, it is an aching period piece, if frankly staid, that comes complete with many of the genre’s most reliable tropes: sharp intakes of breath; glances stolen through laced curtains; and love, as ever, in opprobrium.

You don’t need to have seen the complete works of Merchant-Ivory to know its tricks-–and new locations do have...

Imagining what “In the Mood for Love” might have been like had Apichatpong Weeraserhakul directed it will land you somewhere in the vicinity of “Before, Now & Then,” Kamila Andini’s beguiling drama set in 1960s Indonesia. Anyone familiar with that country’s history, even if only through Joshua Oppenheimer’s devastating companion documentaries “The Act of Killing” and “The Look of Silence,” knows that there’s little happiness on the other side of this film’s end credits, but Andini’s literary adaptation is so transfixing that her characters never feel as doomed as we know them to be.

The “before” prologue finds Nana (Happy Salma) and her sister Ninsingh (Rieke Diah Pitaloka) fleeing for their lives, with our heroine convinced that both her husband and father are dead as the result of the country’s anticommunist purge — a fate that may await her should she refuse to marry an...

“Why do women wear their hair long?,” asks the irrepressible Dais of her mother Nana as she sits in front of the mirror, dressing her hair as if there were nothing more important in life. To all appearances, life moves slowly in 1960s West Java. Dais wants to have her hair short like Daddy’s, so she doesn’t have to spend so much time in the shower. And why, she goes on, do you wear it in a bun? “A woman must be good at keeping secrets,” replies Nana (Happy Salma) fondly. “What happens in her household is under her bun.”

There is enough unspoken tragedy in Nana’s life to clog a dozen hairbrushes, some of which we have already seen; things here haven’t always moved at the pace of a painting.

The opening scene of Kamila Andini’s Berlin Film Festival competition entry Before, Now & Then...

The complete lineup for the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival, taking place February 10-20, 2022, has been unveiled and it’s a major collection of some of our most-anticipated films of the year. As teased yesterday, Claire Denis’ Fire (which now has the title Avec amour et acharnement (aka Both Sides of the Blade)) will premiere in competition, alongside Hong Sangsoo’s The Novelist’s Film, Carla Simón’s Summer 1993 follow-up Alcarràs, Ulrich Seidl’s Rimini, Rithy Panh’s Everything Will Be Ok, and more.

Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...

The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (February 10-20) revealed its Competition line-up on Wednesday, scroll down for the full list.

As previously announced, the International Competition opens this year with François Ozon’s Peter Von Kant. Joining the Ozon pic today were 17 further features, including new films from Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis, Ulrich Seidl, and Rithy Panh.

This marks Denis’ first time in Berlin’s Competition, having been a regular at Cannes over the years, while her last film High Life debuted at Toronto. The director’s new movie Both Sides of the Blade (previously known as Fire) stars Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon.

South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2020 for movie The Woman Who Ran. His latest pic is The Novelist’s Film, which Berlin Artistic Director today said celebrates chance encounters.

The Competition program is 17 world premieres plus one international premiere,...

Films by auteurs Claire Denis, Hong Sangsoo and Rithy Panh are part of the lineup in competition at the 72nd Berlin Film Festival.

Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.

Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.

The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.

The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.

by Ghafara Harashta

Winner for Best New Director at Singapore, Dragon & Tiger Awards at Vancouver, Best Actress for Jajang C. Noer at Cinemaya and Best Supporting Actress for Rachel Maryam at Indonesian Film Festival, “Eliana, Eliana” was released when Indonesian Cinema was treading its path towards the resurrection of the industry.

After a tough day, Eliana arrives home and she is surprised by the visit of her mother. Eliana and her mother, Bunda, have not met for several years since the former ran out from her and the prospect of an arranged marriage back in Western Sumatra. At the same time Heni, Eliana’s roommate, is nowhere to be found. Bunda tries to persuade Eliana to come back home, while she is desperately searching for Heni. During their search, they try to communicate with each other and to break the ice between them along the way, as...

It wasn’t until 2006 that cult Indonesian horror film Satan’s Slave finally received a DVD pressing after accruing its mystique without subtitles courtesy of a Japanese VHS. The 1980 release from director Sisworo Gautama Putra has been called an unofficial remake of Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm, its supernatural haunting steeped in Muslim beliefs and Indonesian folklore rather than the usual Christian trappings associated with the Devil. The pedigree it holds therefore made it unsurprising that Joko Anwar (who grew up on genre fare spanning horror to kung fu) would seek to helm a remake. It may have taken more than ten years to turn that dream into a reality, but Satan’s Slaves becoming his nation’s best-selling domestic release ever proves it was worth the wait.

The 1981-set movie begins with an older woman chanting under her breath in bed, an obvious sickness having taken control of her body three years previously.