In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 1986
- Birthplace
- Jakarta, Indonesia
- Country
- Indonesia
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Kamila Andini creates films and performance work attentive to women, children and specific Indonesian communities, including a collaborative stage reworking of The Seen and Unseen.
- Field
- Film and performance director
Why this life matters
Kamila Andini creates films and performance work attentive to women, children and specific Indonesian communities, including a collaborative stage reworking of The Seen and Unseen.
Timeline
Key moments
Education and a first feature
Kamila Andini was born in Jakarta in 1986 and studied sociology and media arts at Deakin University in Melbourne. Her first feature, The Mirror Never Lies, appeared in 2011 and focused on an Indonesian sea-nomad community. It screened at the Berlinale’s Generation programme the following year. The combination of social inquiry and filmmaking provided more than a general interest in national identity: her projects developed through particular communities, relationships and ways of seeing. Their settings matter to the stories, rather than serving merely as attractive scenery behind an otherwise interchangeable plot.
Sources for this section: [1]
Different films ask different questions
Her second feature, The Seen and Unseen, dates to 2017 and follows the relationship of a girl and her ill twin brother through a world shaped by Balinese movement and belief. It received the Generation Kplus international jury’s Grand Prix in 2018. Yuni, a teenage drama, won Toronto’s Platform Prize in 2021, while Nana, also known as Before, Now & Then, entered the Berlinale competition in 2022. That film turns toward a Sundanese woman’s memories and relationships amid political and personal upheaval. The sequence shows a filmmaker developing across subjects and languages, with women’s experience and the limits of what can be spoken remaining important concerns.
A film becomes a collaborative performance
Andini also directed a stage work inspired by The Seen and Unseen. Its team included choreographer Ida Ayu Wayan Arya Satyani, composer Yasuhiro Morinaga, designer Eugyeene Teh, lighting designer Jenny Hector and dramaturg Adena Jacobs, with performers from Komunitas Bumi Bajra. Performing Lines records presentations in Jakarta and Singapore in 2019 and Melbourne in 2020. In the published conversation, Andini and Jacobs describe adapting the story through choreography and design rather than simply reproducing its film images. This work extends her career beyond a single production medium. Its importance lies partly in that shared process: the director’s story developed alongside the movement practice, cultural knowledge and interpretive decisions of other participants.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Kamila Andini
- What is Kamila Andini known for?
- Kamila Andini creates films and performance work attentive to women, children and specific Indonesian communities, including a collaborative stage reworking of The Seen and Unseen.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Garin Nugroho
Explore another Indonesian filmmaker’s work across cinema and performance, while keeping each production’s actual team distinct.
- Mira Lesmana
Compare the role of film production with the different co-producing and commissioning arrangements documented for this stage work.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.