Director Kamila Andini, Cinematographer Anggi Frisca, Indonesia 2017 (1hr 23mins PG )
The Seen and Unseen, the second feature directed by Kamila Andini, is a follow-up to both her acclaimed debut, The Mirror Never Lies, and her short film Following Diana, also shot by Anggi Frisca. An elliptical tale that deftly interweaves realism with a theatrical mythology, it examines the trauma facing young Tantri as she and her family nervously await a prognosis for her hospitalised twin brother, Tantra. Reluctant to visit him, she escapes into memories of happier times, presented at first as simple flashbacks. But as his condition lingers, her mental flights take on a more fantastical quality. Frisca’s camera imbues both natural landscapes and drab interiors with a sense of slow-building wonder and mystery – she also manages to shoot some of the darkest sequences you’re likely to see in contemporary cinema, which develop the film’s ethereal metaphors in a way that transform Tantri’s loneliness and grief into something more intimate and profound.
In Balinese with English Subtitles
Having begun shooting feature films in 2012, ANGGI FRISCA is already establishing herself as an exciting visual artist in world cinematography. Her work harkens back to the ground-breaking, expressive camera work of the 1970s in the way she delicately balances fluid camera movement with incredibly patient static shots, allowing subtleties of on-screen action to express meaning on their own. Equally at home shooting the lush landscapes of her homeland Indonesia or staged interiors of seemingly non-descript buildings, Frisca imbues her frame with a sense of wonder at both the magical and the mundane. Watch how she captures the mystery of shadow puppets, or how she incorporates built structures as a blocking device to endow simple scenes with metaphorical depth. Other films include the long short Following Diana (2015) also with director Kamila Andini, and the two films she shot with director Emil Haradi, Sagarmatha (2015) and Night Bus (2017).
KAMILA ANDINI took the world of international film by storm with her first effort, The Mirror Never Lies (2011). She has quickly established herself as a writer/director with a keen understanding of the interplay of mythic and mundane in the lives of girls and young women. Her films find instances of the playful and the meditative in every-day moments, and in doing so they contribute to a burgeoning tradition that depicts the potential for narrative depth in every woman’s life, no matter the age. With three films under her belt, she’s proven herself a filmmaker to continue to look out for.