The windmill and the sea, 12min., South Korea
Directed by Lysia Valentina Gani
In a coastal fishing village, fishermen often find plastic fragments inside their catch. A local child turns these into windmills, treating them as precious toys. One day, a visiting child disdainfully throws a windmill into the sea, shattering the local child’s effort. The child tries to rebuild it but fails, Later, an outsider photographer urges the villagers to change, but survival keeps them reliant on plastic. In the end, the plastic drifts back to the sea, and the child watches silently, trapped in an unending cycle.

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

→ A bit of background on this film, it was actually our graduation project, and why we decided to bring up these issue is that it started off with a documentary that one of the writers watched before that became the source inspiration to talk about this topic. And we’ve noticed that the number of plastic that has been washed up or just lying around at the beach has significantly increased, which brings to our attention to make this film.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you
to make this film?

→ We started developing the story from May 2025, and it kept going until
September 2025, where we finally have the finished script. Then we started preproduction from September until October. Then we did the production for a week, which was during the 2nd week of October. The post production was around 2-3 months. The finished work was finalized on December. So it took us around 8 months to finally finish making the film.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

→ Two words to describe the film would be melancholic and eye-opening. Since the film is very subtle and implicit in expressing the message, it has a quiet sadness in it that you can’t really describe it why, you have to feel the film to actually know why, because visually, it’s talking about an everyday routine of a family who lives at a coastal village. And it brings up new perspective on the matters of plastic in pollution, such as the perspective of the tourist, the city boy, and the photograph who all have different takes on this matter.

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

→ I think the biggest obstacle would be in terms of language. So an interesting fact about this production is that, I come from Indonesia, and my teammates are from China and Malaysia. During internal team discussions, we would use three languages, and we would like help translate to one another, switching the languages. For example, I understand Chinese, English, and Bahasa, so I would translate the Chinese to English, or even Bahasa, to one of the Malaysians who doesn’t really understand Chinese. But the challenge comes where we were working with Korean actors who doesn’t really speak any of the languages, except for Korean, while my Korean is not that fluent either. Luckily, the other Malaysian speaks fluent Korean, and our camera operator is also Korean who speaks English, and they would help translate how I wanted them to act the scenes out.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking
about your film in the feedback video?

→ I was genuinely happy and relived that the audience get what I was aiming for, which was to deliver this story in a way where it’s not right on your face, and makes you think whether recycling plastic in how the mom and the little boy do it is the right thing to tackle the problem. And it was very unexpected to be able to get as the winner of best direction because I didn’t really expect or hope much when applying it to the festival.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

→ It was around 9th grade. I actually did performing arts more as a kid, and at that time I didn’t know that learning to become the one who does behind the scenes in performing arts, not just the one who performs, was actually such a thing, and filmmaking was very famous back then in Indonesia. At least, it was like the new “trend”. So then I started joining workshops and took classes on film-making. And it just sticks on with me until now.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

→ I used to watch Western movies, then I shifted to South East Asian ones, like Korean movies, Taiwanese movies, and Chinese movies. But recently, as the film industry in Indonesia is also growing rapidly, I start to enjoy watching Indonesian films. One of the Indonesian film-makers that I love watching is Yandy Laurens, who also becomes the source inspiration on how I approach my own film.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other
festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking
career?

→ I am satisfied with the overall experience as it is very easy and accessible, and very helpful too with the feedback from the audiences, but maybe getting like a soft file of the certificate to make it feel more real would be nice.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

→ It’s been quiet nice actually, it’s very easy to submit out films to festivals, and the information were all laid out and easy to find, so it’s very helpful.

10. What is your favorite meal?

→ I am not really a picker eater, but there was one dish that I was craving for when I was in Korea for my studies. It is an Indonesian dish called pecel. It’s like a salad, there’s bean sprouts, long beans, cucumbers, spinach, tofu and tempe, and you eat it with peanut sauce and rice. I would say that is my favourite meal.

11. What is next for you? A new film?

➔ I am currently working on a play that will be produced on June. It is about the May 1998 riot that was happening in Indonesia. In this production, I am the playwright, and I will perform as well as an appearance. As for the film-making projects, I am planning to make a short MV but in the style of short film for my graduation later, just like a short fun project to do.