The Mirror Never Lies

Kamila Andini’s debut feature follows Pakis, a young girl of the Bajau people – a minority group of sea nomads in Indonesia. Pakis’ father is lost at sea, and her mother labours to make ends meet in his absence. Without a real answer as to her father’s fate and unable to accept that he is gone, Pakis struggles both with her new reality and her relationship with her mother. When a stranger appears in their small fishing village to research dolphins and boards with the small family, conflicts come to a boil.

With the direct simplicity of a child’s gaze, through an unwavering performance by the young lead Gita Novalista, the film examines the personal drama on the stage of the Pacific Ocean, as well as the slow suffocation of fishermen’s livelihood by sea pollution. Andini pairs gorgeous, vast marine landscapes with a restrained, melancholy tone that immerses you in the microcosmos of a Bajau fishing village. The sea is almost its own character in the film – rarely out of sight, both as a physical location and as a central metaphor. Like the sea, everything is constantly changing. Some of these changes are painful and irreversible. The death of a parent; ecological devastation; growing up. However, the film will remind you that there is also hope. The sea binds us together, and united we find strength.

Elisabeth Aslesen

Director

Kamila Andini (b. 1986) is an award-winning Indonesian filmmaker who has quickly established herself as a strong voice in her home country's film industry. At last year's Film from the South festival, all her feature films were shown, including Yuni, which had its world premiere to rave reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021.

This film is part of