The Q & A session of the Winds of Asia Middle-East Film Panorama of Asia Middle East of The Mirror Never Lies.
Host: This is a film that depicts the story about a girl named Pakis in which the mirror owned by her father who has passed away reflects the truth of the world. This will be the first film directed by 25 years old Director Kamila Andini who appeared on stage with the Executive Producer Hugua for the greeting. Ms. Andini is the eldest daughter of the internationally acclaimed film Director, Garin Nugroho.
©2011 TIFF
Ms. Andini: First of all, thank you for coming to see my first feature film and this will also be my colleague’s first film as well. I liked to enjoy diving and that is the reason why I came to the Wakatobi Islands. I was impressed when saw the beauty of the nature and the way the Bajo tribes who lived freely by the sea. And in 2009, I met the mayor of Wakatobi, Mr. Hugua, and also had a chance to become close to the people of the tribe of Bajo and became determined to make this film. I wanted to depict the way the people of Bajo, who lived with the sea, as the theme of this film.
Mr. Hugua: I am honored to be able to be here. I was always worried about the influence of the global warming to the nature on earth. As a mayor of the Wakatobi, I have been participating in the forums and introducing the important issues of the global warming to the people. And I hope that through the film and actors in this film, those issues were made appealing to you. The Wakotobi is known for beautiful corals. There are 850 species of corals in the sea here. Wakotobi and the WWF Indonesia coproduced the film.
Q: I knew that your father was a famous director and I was looking forward to seeing your film. I felt that the depiction was sensitively made and I wondered if you were influenced by your father.
Ms. Andini: Since my father is Gerin Nugroho, who’s known for sensitive film making and being her a daughter, I it is natural to receive influence. I am very fortunate to be able to meet Mr. Hugua and the people of Wakatobi Island and WWF Indonesia for helping me, just for the reason of having the same vision and in which I am obliged for being able to have completed it.
When I first saw the film, I felt that you were using the three generations of characters, which were daughter, mother and the grand parents which I thought was done very well in terms of filming techniques. I was surprised to realize how young you were when you came up on the stage. I was truly surprised when I read the flyers and learned that you were the daughter of Gerin Nugroho. I have a question regarding to the sense of time in this film. There is a scene where mother in the film is on the ship, watching the storm from the ship and then all of the sudden, the scene moves to her room where she is laying down. I thought that the way you move from one time frame to the another, was marvelous. I thought that it connected to the island, which was like a theme of the film, that was positioned in a very original place of it’s own. The way that you used the sense of the time in film was not a classical and seemed very original.
©2011 TIFF
Q: Do you have a theory for the use of time in the film or was there something that influenced you?
Ms. Andini: Regarding to the use of time in the film, I thought I just depicted something that was natural and happened in the every day life. I used the style of moving the time sequence back and forth in the film when I depicted the feelings of how the characters felt at the moment or when the character was surprised. I am not a type of person who would explain a lot about the film. Therefore I would like the audience to understand it the way they felt, when they watched the film.
Q: I thought this was the film which a family loses a father and recovers. The film ends with the sense of hope. There is a sequence in this film where the children were singing and it made me laugh. It was portrayed very lively and I was very curious if the children have improvised the song by themselves?
Ms. Andini: The children of Wakatobi acted very naturally and beautifully as well. There were parts in the song that was improvised. We held the meeting many times before the shooting was commenced and the children were playing improvising the song that they made as part of the every day life.
Q: Please let us know about the casting of the children?
Ms. Andini: The mother and the dolphin researcher are the only professional actors and all the others were local people from the village. I have chosen the three children of my choice as a cast but the bad climate postponed the filming and when I returned later for the actual filming, the children have already grown older and had to find another three children within 3 weeks before the shooting. But I believe that we were fortunate to find these children that were perhaps more gifted than the ones that we had casted earlier. Also, Mr. Hugua mentioned that the cheerfulness with the children is the reflection of how cheerful all the people of the village were. That must be because they are enjoying their lives in the beautiful nature.
©2011 TIFF
Q: If this question is something that shouldn’t be referred to, then you don’t have to answer, but the mother has a white make up on, is it a custom of Wakotobi that the widow has to wear a make up or is it a metaphor in the film?
Lots of people have asked me the same question, therefore, I am used to it by now. The women of Bojos or women who live by the sea wear this white facial make to screen the strong sunshine away. There is also another reason which the make up is a metaphor for a widow’s effort for not allowing another man to come into her life. The audience is free to make their own interpretations. For example, the girl sees her father in the mirror. She wears a white make up like a mask to hide behind. Both of them try to protect themselves from the problems that they have using certain objects. Also, Mr. Hugua says that the white make up was powdered rice mixed with water to apply as a make up.
