Indonesia-Australia Feminist Supernatural Horror ‘Raesita Grey’ Debuts at Inaugural JAFF Market

variety.com:

Naman Ramachandran Director-producer-writer Katrina Irawati Graham and producer Ana Tiwary are presenting supernatural horror project “Raesita Grey” at the first JAFF Market, running alongside Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival in Yogyakarta (Jogja), Indonesia.

The film follows Raesita Grey, an Indonesian batik artist on her family’s West Java rubber plantation, who becomes mysteriously pregnant after losing her Australian husband in a car crash that leaves her vision impaired.

Her pregnancy attracts a Kuntilanak – a vengeful maternal spirit from Indonesian folklore. Graham, who grew up in Jakarta with an Indonesian mother and Australian father, drew inspiration from childhood stories. “My best friend’s uncle would tell us terrifying stories in the dark by firelight.

The most unsettling was the story of the Kuntilanak, the ghost of a woman who has died while birthing a child,” says Graham. “When I became pregnant later in life, I found that the Kuntilanak of my childhood was still lodged deep in the soft folds of my brain.” The Queensland-based filmmaker, who received two Australian Director’s Guild Awards nominations for “Bali 2002,” aims to explore deeper themes through the horror genre. “I wrote ‘Raesita Grey’ as a feminist supernatural horror film to create a space where I might investigate my internal wonderings about the Kuntilanak.