Juror
Edwin
[Juror’s Statement]
I don’t know much about cinema, yet one thing I’m certain of is my love for simply being inside a cinema. Before discovering cinema, I never imagined how dreams and memories could be woven into light and shadow, sound and silence. Even now, as someone who calls themselves a filmmaker, I find the term almost absurd. What exactly does a filmmaker do? Do we build the screen or the projector? Do we create the celluloid itself ? Can dreams really be captured? And if so, how do you reconstruct something so intangible? It feels like an impossible task.
As an Indonesian, I live within a reality that often feels surreal and absurd, where history and facts are twisted by corrupt powers. In such a world, perhaps dreams offer a more honest truth. For me, cinema has become a sanctuary, a library filled with archived dreams that preserve these truths beyond manipulation.
Indonesian filmmaker working across short films, documentaries, and features. His notable works Kara, Daughter of a Tree (2005), Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly (2008), Postcards from the Zoo (2012), and Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (2021) — have screened at major festivals including Cannes, the Berlinale, and Locarno, exploring identity and memories with surreal nuance. He co-founded Kinosaurus, a Jakarta micro-cinema for independent films, and is part of Lab Laba Laba, focused on analog film knowledge preservation. The collective showcased an installation and film workshop at YIDFF 2015, nurturing Indonesia’s vibrant film culture.
Someone’s Wife in the Boat of Someone’s Husband
- KOREA, INDONESIA / 2013 / Indonesian / Color / DCP / 55 min
Director, Editing: Edwin
Script: Edwin, Seno Gumira Ajidarma
Photography: Amalia Trisna Sari
Sound: Wahyu Tri Purnomo
Cast: Mariana Renata, Nicholas Saputra
Producer: Meiske Taurisia
Japanese Subtitles Courtesy of: Tokyo International Film Festival
In the village of Sawai in the Maluku Islands of Eastern Indonesia, there is a legend of two lovers, a boatman named Sukab and a married woman named Halimah, that has been passed down orally for a hundred years. Hearing of this legend and hoping to retrace the romance, Mariana visits the island and conducts interviews with the locals. Unable to find any answers, she meets a traveler named Sukab, and the two begin to bond, as though the legend were coming to life through them. What begins as an ethnographic study transforms into an enchanting fantasy, set against the island’s majestic natural landscapes.