“Mothers are Mothering”, interview with the directors Khozy Rizal and Lam Li Shuen

Presented during the Cannes Film Festival as part of the International Critics’ Week initiative, Next Step Studio: Indonesia,

“Makers Are Mothering” emerges as one of the most singular short films of the program dedicated to new Indonesian voices in cinema.

Co-directed by Indonesian filmmaker Khozy Rizal and Singaporean director Lam Li Shuen, the film combines black comedy, queer sensibility and science fiction to tell the story of Nia, a woman trapped within domestic suffocation and emotional displacement.

For Khozy Rizal, the project’s origin was deeply personal.

“It came from my mother,” he explained. “She always went out of the house, and when I asked why, she said she didn’t like being at home, and she didn’t like my father.”

That revelation became the emotional nucleus of the story. Khozy Rizal initially imagined the project as a comedy-drama centred on female friendship and domestic dissatisfaction. The transformation came when he shared the script with Lam Li Shuen, who introduced a radically different perspective.

“Fantasy and sci-fi can sometimes feel more real than reality,” she observed.

The addition of alien imagery and speculative elements allowed the filmmakers to externalise feelings of estrangement, especially the sensation of not belonging in one’s own home.

Motherhood, queerness and chosen solidarity

The title “Makers Are Mothering” immediately suggests irony and affection at the same time. According to the directors, the phrase originated in queer online culture, where “mothering” is often used to praise someone who performs with confidence or charisma.

Yet within the film, the expression acquires a more layered meaning.

The story is populated by multiple maternal figures: Nia herself, the women surrounding her and the mysterious “all-mother” presence that hovers over the narrative. Through these figures, the film explores motherhood not as a fixed biological identity, but as a form of solidarity and mutual survival.

Female friendship becomes central to the film’s emotional architecture, particularly in contrast to the oppressive domestic environment Nia inhabits.

The directors deliberately built strong visual oppositions between these spaces. Nia’s home is dark, claustrophobic and emotionally stagnant, while the gatherings between women are vibrant, colourful, and fluid.

“We wanted to create the feeling of suffocation,” Lam Li Shuen explained, “and then contrast it with moments of freedom.”

Alienation through fantasy and sensation

One of the most striking aspects of “Makers Are Mothering” is the way it merges psychological realism with genre elements. Rather than using science fiction as spectacle, the filmmakers employ it as emotional language.

The alien figure becomes a metaphor for otherness, displacement and desire. To reinforce this sensation, the directors even chose to shoot certain sequences on 16mm film, seeking a warmer, more organic texture that could evoke another universe.

For Lam Li Shuen, visual language was inseparable from emotional experience.

“We wanted the audience to feel desire, entrapment and release through the images themselves,” she noted.

That sensorial approach also shapes the film’s portrayal of violence. Domestic abuse and emotional oppression are rarely shown explicitly. Instead, they emerge through atmosphere, sound and destabilising visual interruptions.

The recurring earthquake motif, for example, functions simultaneously as a political metaphor for contemporary Indonesia and as an expression of Nia’s unstable emotional reality.

Khozy Rizal described the house itself as a place that constantly “shakes her up.”

A collaborative directing process

Both filmmakers described the collaboration as unusually instinctive and creatively open.

“We’re both crazy filmmakers,” Khozy Rizal joked. “We were never shy to put everything on the table.”

Their artistic sensibilities initially appeared very different. Khozy Rizal’s cinema tends toward vibrant colours and emotional immediacy, while Lam Li Shuen’s previous work often explores darker and more restrained atmospheres. Yet the fusion of these approaches ultimately became one of the short film’s defining strengths.

The production itself was extremely demanding. The entire shoot lasted only two days, despite involving dance choreography, intimacy coordination, practical effects and emotionally complex performances.

The directors repeatedly emphasised the importance of trust within the cast and crew. Actress Happy Salma, in particular, impressed them with her ability to navigate the film’s constantly shifting emotional tones.

The challenge was not simply dramatic performance, but sustaining contradictory emotions simultaneously.

“We wanted scenes that were sad but also funny at once,” Khozy Rizal explained.

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