About the Author

Aruna Maartje is a film critic and cultural commentator. Now based in Jakarta, she travels extensively to cover international film festivals, primarily across Europe and Asia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Film Art at Paris College of Art, where her work focused on Asian and European cinema, feminist film theory, and contemporary film culture, with particular attention to emotional experience and human connection in film.Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Sight & Sound, Vulture, and Screen Daily, among other publications. She approaches cinema as a lived cultural practice rather than a closed text, writing about films through close observation and the ways stories are shaped, shared, and received.Aruna regularly covers major international film festivals including Cannes, Venice, and the Busan International Film Festival. Alongside her criticism, she participates in panel discussions, moderates public conversations, and gives guest lectures on film culture.

She remains on the sidelines,

still like a held breathe.

Born on 2 March 1996 in Leiden, Aruna Maartje Atmadja was raised in a family that valued stability more than emotional expression. Her father, Hendrik Maarten Atmadja, a Dutch corporate executive, believed structure and long-term planning were essential to a good life. Her mother, Harun Elisabeth Hartono, Indonesian with European ties, showed care through action rather than conversation. So Aruna grew up supported in material ways, but rarely reassured emotionally.Tension surfaced when Aruna rejected the career path her parents had mapped out for her and chose to study film instead. The disagreement was never loud or confrontational, but it permanently altered the family dynamic. Support remained, though it became formal and distant. However, her relationship with her younger brother, Arya Matthias Atmadja, stayed; he became the person she trusted the most.Aruna studied Film Art at Paris College of Art. Her academic focus leaned toward cinema theory, cultural criticism, and narrative analysis rather than production. After graduating, she chose to live in Indonesia, drawn to its pace, contradictions, and immediacy. She now works as an international film critic and cultural commentator, attending film festivals across the world while maintaining her base in Jakarta.Alongside her work in film criticism, Aruna occasionally models and collaborates as an influencer, primarily aligned with her travel, festival presence, and personal interests. Outside of work, she cooks as a way to decompress, preferring routines that keep her grounded. She leads a largely self-contained life.To Aruna, home exists everywhere, and forever is a feeling rather than a promise. She is drawn to learning languages, believing that no language can ever be fully translated into another. And that not everything needs to be understood. Some things, she accepts, are best observed from the sidelines.

writer's notes

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