Nan Achnas

Directing

Nan Achnas

Born

1963-01-06 (63)

Place of birth

Singapore

Known for

Directing

Credits

21 titles

Nan Triveni Achnas is an Indonesian film director. Born in Singapore in 1963, she grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Achnas graduated from the Faculty of Film and Television at the Jakarta Institute of the Arts. She also completed a master's degree in Film Studies at the University of East Anglia in 1996 where she was a Chevening Scholar. While graduating from the University of East Anglia, she directed a film entitled The Only Day (1988) as her diploma film. It won the Grand Prix at the Asian Young Cinema Film Festival in Tokyo. In 2020, she obtained her PhD degree at Nanyang Technological University Singapore with a doctoral thesis on “Experimenting with the essay form and wayang in conte…

Known for

Whispering Sands poster
8.4

Berlian and her teenage daughter Daya are on the run from political violence. Constantly daydreaming that her absent father will return, young Daya chafes under the stern hand of her mother. Forced to move inland from their seaside home to a desert of constantly shifting sands, the pair settle down to their familiar antagonism. Finally, Daya sees a vaguely familiar face shuffle in from across the wasteland.

Whispering Sands

2001

Kuldesak poster
6.5

Four stories unfold in Jakarta, a big city that feels cold and dehumanizing. Life there strips away meaning, turning people into soulless zombies. In their search for purpose, youths turn to the only things that seem worthwhile—television and movies. This obsession pushes them down a dark path, transforming them into twisted versions of anti-heroes who make anti-social choices that spiral out of control.

Kuldesak

1998

Pesantren: 3 Wishes 3 Loves poster
7.2

Huda, Rian, and Syahid are friends living in Islamic boarding school. They lost someone in their family and aspire to different things in their lives.

Pesantren: 3 Wishes 3 Loves

2008

Khalifah poster
10.0

Khalifah works in a beauty parlor. She marries Rasyid to obey her father and support the family. She becomes a devoted wife and wears the veil on Rasyid’s orders. She soon learns that Rasyid has a strict teaching of Islam, when he later tells Khalifah to wear a full body veil. Khalifah obeys his request, despite her father’s objection. But her neighbors start to perceive her as a terrorist’s wife. Meanwhile, Khalifah’s young neighbor, Yoga, has a secret crush on her. Yoga is the one who sews Khalifah’s veil. One day, Rasyid’s secret life is unraveled and he betrays Khalifah.

Khalifah

2011

The Ones Who Come and Go poster
NR

Sinta (Dian Sastrowardoyo), the only daughter of Hartini (Retno Soetarto), inherits the family’s old Wiryo Guest House, a place that holds many memories from the past to the present. Amid the comings and goings of guests, Sinta is reunited with Banawan (Roy Sungkono), her childhood friend and the man she once loved. However, the presence of several other male guests brings with it hope, love, and betrayal, which slowly drag Sinta and her family into various problems.

The Ones Who Come and Go

2026

The Flag poster
10.0

Budi and Rosi are assigned by the teacher to raise the flag on Mondays. But when the teacher gives Budi the flag for washing, he falls asleep and forgets that the bucket he is using to soak the flag, is usually used by his neighbour, Bang Ali, to wash his bajaj (motor tricycle). Budi panics when he learns that the flag is missing. He calls Rosie and they look for it around the house. Then Bang Ali returns the bucket, and they rediscover the flag. But when they wash and dry it, the flag goes "missing" again. This takes Budi and Rosi on an "adventure" to find the flag again.

The Flag

2002

Behind the camera

Whispering Sands poster
8.4

Berlian and her teenage daughter Daya are on the run from political violence. Constantly daydreaming that her absent father will return, young Daya chafes under the stern hand of her mother. Forced to move inland from their seaside home to a desert of constantly shifting sands, the pair settle down to their familiar antagonism. Finally, Daya sees a vaguely familiar face shuffle in from across the wasteland.

Whispering Sands

2001

Whispering Sands poster
8.4

Berlian and her teenage daughter Daya are on the run from political violence. Constantly daydreaming that her absent father will return, young Daya chafes under the stern hand of her mother. Forced to move inland from their seaside home to a desert of constantly shifting sands, the pair settle down to their familiar antagonism. Finally, Daya sees a vaguely familiar face shuffle in from across the wasteland.

Whispering Sands

2001

Kuldesak poster
6.5

Four stories unfold in Jakarta, a big city that feels cold and dehumanizing. Life there strips away meaning, turning people into soulless zombies. In their search for purpose, youths turn to the only things that seem worthwhile—television and movies. This obsession pushes them down a dark path, transforming them into twisted versions of anti-heroes who make anti-social choices that spiral out of control.

Kuldesak

1998

Kuldesak poster
6.5

Four stories unfold in Jakarta, a big city that feels cold and dehumanizing. Life there strips away meaning, turning people into soulless zombies. In their search for purpose, youths turn to the only things that seem worthwhile—television and movies. This obsession pushes them down a dark path, transforming them into twisted versions of anti-heroes who make anti-social choices that spiral out of control.

Kuldesak

1998

Pesantren: 3 Wishes 3 Loves poster
7.2

Huda, Rian, and Syahid are friends living in Islamic boarding school. They lost someone in their family and aspire to different things in their lives.

Pesantren: 3 Wishes 3 Loves

2008

Khalifah poster
10.0

Khalifah works in a beauty parlor. She marries Rasyid to obey her father and support the family. She becomes a devoted wife and wears the veil on Rasyid’s orders. She soon learns that Rasyid has a strict teaching of Islam, when he later tells Khalifah to wear a full body veil. Khalifah obeys his request, despite her father’s objection. But her neighbors start to perceive her as a terrorist’s wife. Meanwhile, Khalifah’s young neighbor, Yoga, has a secret crush on her. Yoga is the one who sews Khalifah’s veil. One day, Rasyid’s secret life is unraveled and he betrays Khalifah.

Khalifah

2011

Khalifah poster
10.0

Khalifah works in a beauty parlor. She marries Rasyid to obey her father and support the family. She becomes a devoted wife and wears the veil on Rasyid’s orders. She soon learns that Rasyid has a strict teaching of Islam, when he later tells Khalifah to wear a full body veil. Khalifah obeys his request, despite her father’s objection. But her neighbors start to perceive her as a terrorist’s wife. Meanwhile, Khalifah’s young neighbor, Yoga, has a secret crush on her. Yoga is the one who sews Khalifah’s veil. One day, Rasyid’s secret life is unraveled and he betrays Khalifah.

Khalifah

2011

The Ones Who Come and Go poster
NR

Sinta (Dian Sastrowardoyo), the only daughter of Hartini (Retno Soetarto), inherits the family’s old Wiryo Guest House, a place that holds many memories from the past to the present. Amid the comings and goings of guests, Sinta is reunited with Banawan (Roy Sungkono), her childhood friend and the man she once loved. However, the presence of several other male guests brings with it hope, love, and betrayal, which slowly drag Sinta and her family into various problems.

The Ones Who Come and Go

2026

The Ones Who Come and Go poster
NR

Sinta (Dian Sastrowardoyo), the only daughter of Hartini (Retno Soetarto), inherits the family’s old Wiryo Guest House, a place that holds many memories from the past to the present. Amid the comings and goings of guests, Sinta is reunited with Banawan (Roy Sungkono), her childhood friend and the man she once loved. However, the presence of several other male guests brings with it hope, love, and betrayal, which slowly drag Sinta and her family into various problems.

The Ones Who Come and Go

2026

The Ones Who Come and Go poster
NR

Sinta (Dian Sastrowardoyo), the only daughter of Hartini (Retno Soetarto), inherits the family’s old Wiryo Guest House, a place that holds many memories from the past to the present. Amid the comings and goings of guests, Sinta is reunited with Banawan (Roy Sungkono), her childhood friend and the man she once loved. However, the presence of several other male guests brings with it hope, love, and betrayal, which slowly drag Sinta and her family into various problems.

The Ones Who Come and Go

2026

The Flag poster
10.0

Budi and Rosi are assigned by the teacher to raise the flag on Mondays. But when the teacher gives Budi the flag for washing, he falls asleep and forgets that the bucket he is using to soak the flag, is usually used by his neighbour, Bang Ali, to wash his bajaj (motor tricycle). Budi panics when he learns that the flag is missing. He calls Rosie and they look for it around the house. Then Bang Ali returns the bucket, and they rediscover the flag. But when they wash and dry it, the flag goes "missing" again. This takes Budi and Rosi on an "adventure" to find the flag again.

The Flag

2002

The Flag poster
10.0

Budi and Rosi are assigned by the teacher to raise the flag on Mondays. But when the teacher gives Budi the flag for washing, he falls asleep and forgets that the bucket he is using to soak the flag, is usually used by his neighbour, Bang Ali, to wash his bajaj (motor tricycle). Budi panics when he learns that the flag is missing. He calls Rosie and they look for it around the house. Then Bang Ali returns the bucket, and they rediscover the flag. But when they wash and dry it, the flag goes "missing" again. This takes Budi and Rosi on an "adventure" to find the flag again.

The Flag

2002

The Flag poster
10.0

Budi and Rosi are assigned by the teacher to raise the flag on Mondays. But when the teacher gives Budi the flag for washing, he falls asleep and forgets that the bucket he is using to soak the flag, is usually used by his neighbour, Bang Ali, to wash his bajaj (motor tricycle). Budi panics when he learns that the flag is missing. He calls Rosie and they look for it around the house. Then Bang Ali returns the bucket, and they rediscover the flag. But when they wash and dry it, the flag goes "missing" again. This takes Budi and Rosi on an "adventure" to find the flag again.

The Flag

2002

The Photograph poster
5.6

Sita is an escort at a karaoke bar who struggles to raise money to send her daughter out of the city to live with her grandmother and settle her debts with her pimp. She moves in with aging photographer Jan and helps him fulfill his last wishes.

The Photograph

2007

The Photograph poster
5.6

Sita is an escort at a karaoke bar who struggles to raise money to send her daughter out of the city to live with her grandmother and settle her debts with her pimp. She moves in with aging photographer Jan and helps him fulfill his last wishes.

The Photograph

2007

The Photograph poster
5.6

Sita is an escort at a karaoke bar who struggles to raise money to send her daughter out of the city to live with her grandmother and settle her debts with her pimp. She moves in with aging photographer Jan and helps him fulfill his last wishes.

The Photograph

2007

The Window poster
NR

Dewi returns to her village in Yogyakarta after ten years of leaving. A letter and newspaper clipping sent by her mother, make her return to her village: Dee’s mysterious pregnancy, her mentally handicapped sister Dewi finds her parents' home situation has not changed. What has changed is the pregnancy of Dee and the always changing view behind the large window of the house. Dewi then knows Priyanto who is just a year living in the village. They make an unusual love story. Joko, Dewi’s old friend, is jealous. The arrival of Dewi reveals his unfinished past.

The Window

2016

The Window poster
NR

Dewi returns to her village in Yogyakarta after ten years of leaving. A letter and newspaper clipping sent by her mother, make her return to her village: Dee’s mysterious pregnancy, her mentally handicapped sister Dewi finds her parents' home situation has not changed. What has changed is the pregnancy of Dee and the always changing view behind the large window of the house. Dewi then knows Priyanto who is just a year living in the village. They make an unusual love story. Joko, Dewi’s old friend, is jealous. The arrival of Dewi reveals his unfinished past.

The Window

2016

Maya, Raya, Daya poster
NR

The rise of women from three eras who are persecuted in marriage life.

Maya, Raya, Daya

2006

No artwork available
NR

a short film by Nan Achnas

Hanya Satu Hari

1988

No artwork available
NR

a short film by Nan Achnas

Hanya Satu Hari

1988