

A Film by WIDYA ARAFAH
On the verge of her Ratoh Jaroe dance debut, a passionate female student’s dream to perform is jeopardized when she must prove her irregular period is real after being accused of lying during a school-mandated menstruation raid.

Director's Statement;
As a woman, wherever I stand, I often feel the need to prove myself—my body and my dreams. This validation feels like a ticket to be believed, to be seen, even to exist. I keep asking: where does this obsession come from? During my school years, many women indirectly taught me that proving myself was a form of protection. I remember menstruation raids in some schools, where girls had to show their sanitary pads to prove they were not lying about their periods. As I grew older, I realized those women did not intend to hurt us. I believed they were protecting us, shaped by the system they lived within. That is why I do not want to create a villain in this film. I want to question the system that quietly teaches women we must constantly prove ourselves to exist. Through this film, I want to visualize the beauty, harmony, and femininity of womanhood. But when we look closer, we begin to see how the system pushes us to keep proving ourselves—our bodies and our dreams. How far we are willing to go, even with our own bodies, just to be believed.


Writer and Director
WIDYA ARAFAH is an Indonesian writer and director. Her background in Anthropology has sharpened her sensitivity in representing human experiences—particularly in portraying how people nurture and grow. She is an alumna of the FLY ASEAN-ROK Film Leaders Incubator 2025 and Layar Indonesiana 2024. Her latest short film, Knight of Blood, international premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. She is currently in post-production Aisha on the Day She Blooms, a short film about women’s bodies and dreams, supported by a grant from the Humanis Foundation and presented at Akatara Film Market, while developing her first feature script through a screenwriter fellowship by Netflix x Soda Machine Films.

TECHNICAL DETAILS
PRODUCTION COUNTRY
LANGUAGES
SUBTITLES
YEAR
RUNTIME
FRAME RATE
ASPECT RATIO
RESOLUTION
SOUND
INDONESIA
INDONESIAN
ENGLISH
2026
14 MINUTES
24FPS
2.35:1
4K
DOLBY 5.1
PRODUCTION GRANT AND MARKET
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Received ‘Gaung Perubahan’ production grant from the Humanis Foundation
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Presented project in the finance pitching forum at Akatara Film Market 2024 by Indonesian Ministry of Tourism
CAST
AISHA
BU MAR
NAYA
KAK LARAS
GWENDOLYNE ACQUANETTA S.
MARYAM SUPRABA
NADINE ADYLA
NEYSA ANANDA
CREW
WRITER & DIRECTOR
PRODUCER
CO-PRODUCER
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
ART DIRECTOR
HEAD OF WARDROBE AND MAKE UP
EDITOR
RATOH JAROE CHOREOGRAPHER
RATOH JAROE MUSIC COMPOSER
MUSIC SCORING
SOUND RECORDIST
SOUND DESIGNER
WIDYA ARAFAH
LALA JASIN & THEA FILISA
RE FAKHRI & WIDYA ARAFAH
PANDYA DEVAPUTRA
SARA DIANI
KHANSA AMILA
CHANDRA DWI ABDURRAHMAN
FATHUR RAHMAN SIHAB
MARSIANUS FERDI
NATHANIA ALEXANDRA
AIR ABHIPRAYA
RISANGGALIH ADITYA