Session III: Liminal Spaces

The screening will be followed by a discussion with special guests Wucha Wulan Dari & Yuefei You

Moderated by Annisa Hartoto

Focus: Indonesia

What happens in the in-between? There are border spaces, for example between past and present, memories and the forgotten, the seen and the unseen. The Liminal Spaces session explores transitional spaces in Indonesia, where stories live on like ghosts and identities are constantly in the making – must they be?

What Do Ghosts Think? (48 min)

Indonesia, 2024, Indonesia, Cantonese / English sub.
Directed by Yuefei You

This is a rhapsody of ghost stories. Indonesia is moving its capital from Jakarta to Nusantara, a brand-new city near the forests in Borneo. A Chinese-born anthropology student investigates supernatural stories within various communities around the construction site. She encounters local ancestors, the resident spirit, and unexpected ghosts herself. Who are the ghosts haunting in the construction? What do the ghosts think? Through her letters to her deceased mother, the researcher seeks answers to the tensions between local people and the national project, the costs of a good life and development, the bonding of the living and the dead.

Yuefei You was born in Southern China and graduated in Visual Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam in 2024. This film is part of her Master’s thesis.

Content warning: exploitation of nature.

Laila (17 min)

Indonesia, 2023, Bahasa, Melayu / English sub.
Directed by Wucha Wulan Dari

15 year-old Laila, a junior high school student living in a coastal village in East Kalimantan, is raised by her aunt. Her aunt plans to marry her off to a man she doesn’t know, but Laila refuses and escapes to the beach using her late parents’ boat, a symbol of her freedom. She threatens to stay away until her marriage is called off. However, after some time, Laila notices strange changes in her body, forcing her to return to the land.

Wucha Wulan Dari completed her undergraduate studies in Film and Television at ISI Yogyakarta and earned her Master’s degree in Cultural Studies, Anthropology from UGM.

Discussion: Lost Spaces, Liminal Identities

Discussion with special guests Wucha Wulan Dari & Yuefei You

Moderated by Annisa Hartoto

Laila and What Do Ghosts Think? explore spaces of transition, displacement, and belonging. Laila navigates the in-between space of girlhood and womanhood, resisting forced marriage while seeking refuge in the open ocean. What Do Ghosts Think? examines spiritual liminality amid the transformation of ancestral lands. Together, these films ask: what happens when the spaces we are born into no longer hold us? Where do we go when home is no longer a place of belonging?