Berlin Review: Kamila Andini’s ‘Before, Now & Then’
deadline.com“Why do women wear their hair long?,” asks the irrepressible Dais of her mother Nana as she sits in front of the mirror, dressing her hair as if there were nothing more important in life.
To all appearances, life moves slowly in 1960s West Java. Dais wants to have her hair short like Daddy’s, so she doesn’t have to spend so much time in the shower.
And why, she goes on, do you wear it in a bun? “A woman must be good at keeping secrets,” replies Nana (Happy Salma) fondly. “What happens in her household is under her bun.”There is enough unspoken tragedy in Nana’s life to clog a dozen hairbrushes, some of which we have already seen; things here haven’t always moved at the pace of a painting.
The opening scene of Kamila Andini’s Berlin Film Festival competition entry Before, Now & Then (aka Nana) shows two women carrying their goods — including a baby — through the forest on animal tracks to avoid being spotted by “those people.” Nana is being spirited away by her sister, under instructions from their father.
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