The Photograph

Indonesia

Director: Nan Achnas
Production company: Triximages

25-year-old Sita makes a living as a prostitute in a karaoke bar, but not even this is enough to support her sick mother who is looking after her little daughter in the country, or to pay her debt to the pimp Suroso. The desperate situation forces the young woman to rent a cheap attic room above a photographic studio. Its owner, the aging photographer Johan, becomes part of her life and makes Sita longing for a fresh start.

When she discovers that he only has a few months to live, she decides to fulfil his last wishes. She finds out that three photographs which Johan plans to take are linked to the dark past of a man who was part of transforming her life. Nan Achna’s beautiful film is not only a story about the relationship between two outsiders, who share the world of photography and photographic images, but also a film looking at gender and cultural issues in Indonesia.

Director Biography

Nan Achnas was born in 1963 in Singapore and got herself noticed with her short film The Little Gayo Singer (1995). Her feature-length debut was the comedy Kuldesak (1999). She won numerous awards for Whispering Sands (2001) and the film was screened in competition at the Rotterdam IFF. After the short documentary Invisible Garments, Expensive Soles (2001) she directed and produced The Flag (2002). The Photograph, which is her latest film, won the Jury Award in Karlovy Vary.

“What would I do if I were given only months to live (...)? What is my idea of closure to this life? For the protagonist of this film, it is the act of taking a photograph of himself. An image that serves to immortalize him as a participant to this life and the fact that it was done by the most unlikely person became all-important.”
Nan Achnas