Before Now & Then / Film School Radio interview with Director Kamila Andini

Set amid the political violence of late-1960s Indonesia, Kamila Andini's intoxicating film BEFORE, NOW & THEN follows Raden Nana Suhani, a Sundanese woman who in the 1960s lost and father and son to the war in West Java. We find her as the beautiful wife of a wealthy plantation owner, who always looked down on her. For Nana, her inner life remains with her deceased first husband, murdered in the civil war a decade prior. A survivor, Nana values her safety and material comforts, but carries out a haunted existence, dreaming of her lost love. Forced to confront her husband's blatant infidelity, Nana makes an unusual connection with his younger mistress, Ino. The two women, sharing their secrets and desires, discover a newfound freedom and intimacy withheld from them both by the strictures of patriarchal society. Together, these two women seek hope for independence. Director and screenwriter Kamila Andini (Nusa Yang Hilang, Yuni,) joins us for a conversation on how the enveloping stranglehold of patriarchy informs every aspect of these women’s lives, drawing out sublime performances from actors Happy Salma (Nana) and Laura Basuki (Ino), capturing the subversive beauty of a land gripped by violence and upheaval. For more go to: filmmovement.com/before-now-then See in a theatre: filmmovement.com/before-now-then