Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival (JAFF), the largest and longest-running Asian film festival in Indonesia, returns this year with a remarkable lineup of 227 films from 43 countries across its competition and non-competition programs.
Among the highlights of Day 3 are two titles from the competition slate, Amoeba (Siyou Tan, 2025), which screens in the Main Competition alongside ten other films for the Golden and Silver Hanoman Awards, and The Period of Her (Erlina Rakhmawati, Praditha Blifa, Sarah Adilah, and Yulinda Dwi Andriyani, 2025) from the Indonesian Screen Awards. Also featured is a notable non-competition title, Mr. Kim Goes to the Cinema (Kim Dong-ho, 2025). Though different in genre, all three films deliver powerful, deeply personal perspectives from their makers.
Amoeba is a coming-of-age drama with a touch of horror, drawn from director Tan Siyou’s own teenage years. The film examines the pressures of an authoritarian school system, the search for identity, and the gendered anxieties that shape the lives of young girls. Meanwhile, The Period of Her brings together four young Indonesian female directors in an anthology exploring the many layers of women’s experiences. Ranging from social pressure and unequal relationships to the injustices faced simply because of biological realities and imposed gender roles. Mr. Kim Goes to the Cinema marks a reflective feature documentary by Busan International Film Festival founder Kim Dong-ho, who at 85 years old, after the COVID-19 pandemic, picks up a camcorder for the first time and decides to make a documentary. The documentary digs into the ebb and flow of the global film industry and the personal anxieties of the filmmakers he encounters.
Despite their differing genres, these three films share a common thread: the human struggle to confront reality. Amoeba captures the turbulence of self-discovery within a constricting environment; Mr. Kim Goes to the Cinema offers a contemplative look at filmmaking and its practitioners in the aftermath of the pandemic; and The Period of Her foregrounds women’s courage in negotiating space and identity amid societal limitations. Together, they tell a solid story about resilience, agency, and the ongoing effort to understand oneself.
Watch more selections from JAFF20’s competition and non-competition programs, running through 6 December 2025. Find the program details at jaff-filmfest.org and @jaffjogja.
Photos: JAFF Documentation Team
