Mouly Surya

Upon graduation, Surya came back to Indonesia and gained experience in the local film industry by working as assistant directors in Rako Prijanto's comedy-drama D'Bijis (2007) and romance Love Is Red (2007).[4] While working on the latter, she met future husband Rama Adi, who was part of the film's cinematography department.[5]

In 2007, she acquired funding to direct Fiksi. based on a screenplay she developed herself.[4] She and Adi decided to become collaborators and founded their own film production company Cinesurya.[5] Based on the advice of Riri Riza, they decided to seek another collaborator who could bring more experience in shaping the screenplay, which turned out to be producer Tia Hasibuan and Joko Anwar.[4] Anwar spent a month working on Surya's draft and was credited as a co-writer.[4]

In 2008, Fiksi. was released theatrically with Ladya Cheryl, Donny Alamsyah, and Kinaryosih in the starring roles.[6] The film received critical acclaim, but failed commercially with only 30 thousand admissions.[4] At the 28th Citra Awards, Surya made history by becoming the first woman to win Best Director since the award was first given in 1955.[7] Overall, the film won four out of its ten nominations, the other three being Best Picture, Best Screenplay for Surya and Anwar, and Best Original Score.[7]

In 2009, Surya co-wrote the screenplay of Kambing Jantan with friend Raditya Dika and Salman Aristo.[8]

In 2013, Surya wrote and directed her sophomore feature What They Don't Talk About When They Talk About Love. In January, the film made history as the first Indonesian film to compete at the Sundance Film Festival of that year in the World Dramatic Competition, where it also had its world premiere.[9] Domestically, the film was released in May 2013. It stars Nicholas Saputra and Ayushita in the starring roles.[10] The film is a romantic drama involving characters with different types of disabilities.[11] The film performed poorly at the box office but received positive reviews from critics, with The Hollywood Reporter's Duane Byrge calling it a "touching and brilliantly envisioned story of a young, nearly blind teen's first love."[12]

Surya then released her third feature film Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts in 2017. It premiered at the Directors' Fortnight event of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival in May before receiving a domestic release later in November.[13] A revenge drama-thriller, the film was only the fourth Indonesian film ever to make the festival's official selection after Eros Djarot's Tjoet Nja' Dhien and Garin Nugroho's Leaf on a Pillow in 1998 as well as Nugroho's Serambi in 2006.[14] While Surya co-wrote the screenplay with husband and collaborator Rama Adi, Garin Nugroho is credited with the original story, which he shared with Surya while they were part of a Citra Award jury panel.[4] Marsha Timothy stars as a young widow who is raped and violated by local thugs and sets out to take revenge on her attackers.[15]

In a review for Variety following its Cannes screening, Maggie Lee gave the film a rave review, praising Surya's ability to "build nail-biting tension" with a climax that "rivals any of [Quentin] Tarantino's high concept violence".[16] Lee's description of the film as having "pioneered a new genre" called the "Satay Western" in reference to the film's Western style but told from a female perspective while incorporating Indonesia's traditional values.[16] The term "Satay Western" has since been used in multiple media coverage of the film.[17][18][19]

At the 38th Citra Awards the following year, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts received 14 nominations, breaking Teguh Karya's Mother's record of the most nominations received by a film ever with 11 in 1986.[20] The record was later broken by Joko Anwar's Impetigore which received 17 nominations in 2020.[21] It went on to win 10 awards, including Best Picture, a second Best Director for Surya, Best Actress for Marsha Timothy, Best Supporting Actress for Dea Panendra, and Best Original Screenplay for Surya and Adi.[22] The film was selected as Indonesia's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 91st Academy Awards, but failed to get a nomination.[23]

In May 2020, Netflix announced that Surya will helm the action-thriller film Trigger Warning with a screenplay by Josh Olson (known for David Cronenberg's A History of Violence) and John Brancato (known for David Fincher's The Game) that is currently in pre-production.[24] Jessica Alba was announced to star as a traumatized vet who inherits her grandfather's bar and soon discovers the truth behind his death.[24]