A Tale of the Stolen River
Syamsiah and Pandi live a simple, fulfilling life in Sepaku, East Kalimantan — until construction of Indonesia's new capital reaches their land and their water.
Documentary director & photographer · Bali & Jakarta, Indonesia
Documentaries on how we live with one another — and with everything else.
Mahatma Putra is an Indonesian documentary director and photographer based in Bali & Jakarta, Indonesia. His films — from Batak (2013) to A Tale of the Stolen River (2025) — follow people at the margins of large forces: migration, politics, land, and the quiet work of holding a life together.
Selected films
Full filmography
Terpejam untuk Melihat
A political and ecological meditation on berkesalingan — that everything in this universe is mutually conditioned.
Atas Nama Daun
Five perspectives on cannabis in Indonesia — medical, legal, religious, cultural and personal — opening a space for discussion rather than verdict.
Photography
All series
Latest exhibition
anātman — A Photography Exhibition
Anātman — without self, without core. Nothing is eternal; everything changes, moment to moment. What remains is connection, gratitude, and a compassion that flows to the living and the non-living alike.
Black and white, from the series that became the book REINKARNASI.
The book
Pre-orderREINKARNASI
Twenty years of photographs, gathered into one black-and-white sequence. A limited first edition is open for pre-order.
Reserve a copy