The feature film Samsara looks at contemporary Balinese arts, and was performed with live musicians.

Filmmaker Garin Nugroho collaborated with gamelan percussion orchestra Yuganada, and the double act of DJ Kasimyn on noise, beats and drone, and Ican Harem performing death metal vocals and throat singing.

Nugroho was inspired by 1930s Euro-American cinema, especially German Expressionism.

His straightforward depiction of village life and training in ritual dance recalls early ethnographic cinema. His tendency to use theatrical tableaux – sometimes framing the elegiac choreography of Indonesian Australian dancer Juliet Widyasari Burnett – evokes the work of American Surrealist and dancer Maya Deren.

The film Samsara was performed with live musicians. James/Perth Festival