SRIFF 2026: Indonesian filmmaker finding her voice on screen

Indonesian director and screenwriter Mouly Surya grew up watching martial arts films with her sisters on rented tapes.

Now she's judging in Xi'an.

Raise the Red Lantern – by Zhang Yimou, who's from Xi'an – is still one of her favorites, and it shaped how she saw Asian cinema.

This year, she's at the Golden Silk Road Award, on a jury with filmmakers from other countries.

Watching films with them, she told CGTN's Zhang Meng, gives her something she doesn't get from watching alone.

"Even though we speak a different language, there is something in our roots that we can understand very well." Which is why, she says, collaboration on screen is worth imagining.