Pertiwi (Putri Marino) returns to her hometown after twenty years but the villagers make no effort to hide their fear of her. Even her own parents do not welcome her back. It is because they know she once committed murder and served time in prison. Branded as monsters, she and her fellow outcasts come together to form a small community but true peace requires her to confront the frightening past head-on. Kamila Andini’s fifth feature film, Four Seasons in Java reveals the hypocrisy and weakness of a community that obviously contrasts with its beautiful setting and careful mise-en-scene. The perpetrator becomes the victim and what is right gets interpreted however those in power please. How could this be just one woman’s problem? I hope that four seasons of Pertiwi, a journey past violence and prejudice toward justice and peace, see the light of day in reality too and not only in cinematic imagination.
Born in Indonesia in 1986, Kamila Andini studied sociology and media arts at Deakin University. Her feature debut, The Mirror Never Lies (2011), was invited to over forty film festivals worldwide, including the Busan International Film Festival. She subsequently directed The Seen and Unseen (2017), which won the Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury at the Berlin International Film Festival, and Yuni (2021), which received the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. Four Seasons in Java is her fifth feature film.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
