Mouly Surya

Mouly Surya, born Nursita Mouly Surya on 10 September 1980 in Jakarta, Indonesia, has emerged as one of the most influential voices in contemporary Indonesian cinema. After completing a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Literature at Swinburne University and a Master of Arts at Bond University in Australia, she returned to her homeland equipped with both academic insight and a burgeoning network of creative collaborators, including future husband Rama Adi, a cinematographer she met while assisting on the romance Love Is Red in 2007. Their partnership soon extended beyond marriage, culminating in the founding of the production house Cinesurya, a platform that would nurture several of her groundbreaking projects. Surya’s directorial debut, the psychological thriller Fiksi., premiered in 2008 and instantly secured her a place in Indonesian film history as the first woman ever to win the Citra Award for Best Director, a milestone she would repeat a decade later with Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts. The latter film not only garnered ten Citra Awards—including a second Best Director prize—but also attracted international acclaim at Cannes, where critics coined the term “satay Western” to describe its genre‑blending blend of Western motifs and Indonesian cultural elements. Between these triumphs, Surya continued to push narrative boundaries with What They Don't Talk About When They Talk About Love (2013), the first Indonesian entry in the Sundance World Dramatic Competition, and a series of experimental shorts such as We See You Jakarta (2018) and Something Old, New, Borrowed and Blue (2020). Her upcoming projects, including the war drama This City Is a Battlefield and the Netflix‑backed action‑thriller Trigger Warning, demonstrate a relentless commitment to diversifying genre and expanding Indonesian storytelling onto the global stage, while her collaborative relationship with Rama Adi remains a cornerstone of her creative process.