A journalist stripped of her Indonesian citizenship in 1965 comes home decades later to children who grew up without her in “Casparina,” the second feature from actor-director Reza Rahadian, inspired by the life of his grandmother Francisca Casparina Fanggidaej.
The project is part of the Asian Project Market, which runs within the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM).
In the film, Rina is driven into exile for opposing the government. Thirty-four years on, a letter tells her the old regime has collapsed and she is free to come home. Torn, she goes back to her children Andi and Lila, now grown and settled into lives that never included her. As she works through their hurt and resentment over the years she was gone, mother and children slowly find their way back to each other, and they come to understand what she gave up for her country and her family.
Rahadian says he was drawn to a story of motherhood told through children whose mother was missing from their lives, set in a moment when a person’s citizenship could be taken away suddenly, by force and without warning. The separation, he says, kept his grandmother and her children apart for 32 years. “This is for me a very important story,” he says.
He hopes viewers come away understanding that hard choices carry a price, and that they are sometimes driven by forces a person cannot see. He also wants audiences to grasp, in his words, “what it means to be a mother that is absent for 32 years,” and what it meant for her children to be unable to say openly who their mother was, because doing so could have put their lives at risk.
Producers Arya Ibrahim and Gita Fara describe the project as a story of the political upheaval of 1965, which tore families apart and left people who lost their citizenship living as exiles. According to the producers, Casparina was in Beijing representing Indonesia at an international forum when her citizenship was revoked over her opposition to the new regime. She left six children behind and spent 32 years in exile, first in Beijing and later in the Netherlands, before the family reconnected.
For the producers, stories like hers explain much about Indonesian history and identity. They call Casparina “a victim of an era” and see the film as a reminder not to repeat the same mistakes.
Rahadian’s first feature as director, “On Your Lap,” won four prizes at the Busan festival’s Vision awards in 2025, including the audience award and the Fipresci award.
“Casparina” is in the early stages of scriptwriting. In Busan, the producers hope to meet potential partners and collaborators, film funds and co-production opportunities.