La Javanaise

ANANDA (in French: La Javanaise) is a fictional story, based on historical figures and events, of a young girl's journey to find freedom and return home. In 1893, free-spirit Ananda (13), lives happily with her little sister Tika (8) and their grandmother Embah (53) in a seaside village in Java. Yearning to be a shaman like Embah, Ananda enters the forbidden jungle and encounters a fierce Tiger. Suddenly, the girl and the tiger are both captured by traffickers. Ananda is sent to Paris, France where she works as a model and servant for a bohemian painter who abuses her. On a quest to return home, Ananda escapes, disguises herself as a boy, and encounters the Tiger again at the Cirque Fernando, where Ananda finds a new family among the misfits of the circus.