Kamila Andini Returns to Toronto With 'Four Seasons in Java'
Indonesian director Kamila Andini has brought her fifth feature, Four Seasons in Java, to Toronto for its world premiere. The film plays in the festival’s Centrepiece programme, a section for notable new work from around the world, according to TIFF.
It is Andini’s third time at the Toronto Film Festival. She previously came with The Seen and the Unseen in 2017 and with Yuni in 2021, according to Variety. Yuni won the Platform Prize, an award for bold directing, and went on to become Indonesia’s official entry for the Oscars.
Putri Marino stars as Pertiwi. After 20 years in prison for killing a young man in self-defence during an attempted rape, Pertiwi returns to her hometown to rebuild her life. TIFF describes the story as an examination of the realities faced by victims of sexual violence, told through nature and technology as metaphors for truth and power, according to TIFF.
The film is Andini’s second collaboration with Marino after the Netflix-backed mini-series Cigarette Girl. Andini cast Marino while she was still writing the screenplay, before the two filmed that series. Andini said expressing anger through the film can be liberating.
The setting is a fictionalised town built to feel like a Western. Marino prepared with training in horseback riding, fighting and handling electrical equipment. Costume designer Hagai Pakan created the look. There is no separate festival cut. What audiences see in Toronto is what will open in cinemas.
That cinema release follows quickly. Four Seasons in Java premieres in Toronto before its Indonesian release on Oct. 8, and it will also play at the Busan International Film Festival.
What makes this stand out is the long road to the screen. The project moved through development labs including HBF Development in 2024, NFF+HBF and CineMart in 2025, then was pitched as a Venice Gap-Financing Market project, a market where film-makers seek the last funds to close a budget. It won two prizes at the inaugural Tokyo Gap-Financing Market Awards. In November 2025, Indonesia’s Forka Films unveiled a consortium of local and international production partners to make the film, according to Variety.
