Position Among the Stars
dir. Leonard Retel Helmrich, Netherlands, 2010, 109 mins
Screening times
May 10 19:30, Muranów
May 8 19:00, Kinoteka 7
May 9 19:30, Kinoteka 7
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Synopsis

The third part of Leonard Retel Helmrich's trilogy on Indonesia, which follows the Christian-Islamic Sjamsuddin family. Helmrich uses the Single Shot Cinema technique, whose characteristic style - with long, uninterrupted shots and no interviews or voice-over - is closely related to cinema verité and direct cinema. The camera's broad, intuitive movements are distinctive for these films: it is a fly in the air rather than a fly on the wall, roving among the various family members, including resolute grandmother Rumidjah, her son Bakti and her granddaughter Tari. The occasionally funny and moving everyday ups and downs of the Sjamsuddin family serve Retel Helmrich as an indirect channel for a portrait of modern Indonesia, with all its contrasts between urban and rural, wealth and poverty, and religion and globalization.

Wybrane nagrody i festiwale/Selected festivals and awards: 2010 – MFF Amsterdam, Nagroda dla Najlepszego Długometrażowego Filmu Dokumentalnego oraz Nagroda dla Najlepszego Duńskiego Filmu Dokumentalnego/IDFA, the VPRO Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary and the Dioraphte Award for Dutch Documentary

Makers

Zdjęcia/Cinematography by: Leonard Retel Helmrich, Ismail (Ezther) Fahmi Lubish
Producent/Production: Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich for Scarabeefilms

Ratings log in to rate this film

Shame as verite sequences often feel set up and contrived. Some of the camerawork also feels too tricksy with operator trying to hard to impress us with unmotivated hand-held moves rather than let the story take centre stage. Not sure why but characters f (cj)
A good documentary, although a bit artificial, but I suppose, that it was hard to do it differently. Still a moving story faced by millions around the world. You feel helpless watching it, but somehow encouraged by their will to get on with life. (JOA)
Wonderful characters but style over substance which entirely detracted from my enjoyment. Much of it feels artificial - the whole idea of "a single shot" is suspect - it has to be set-up and many of the scenes clearly are set-up. Not entirely sure this su (mayarosenburg)
A good documentary, good observation and I like very much this camera tricks. (jacwaj)
(emiliakoziol)
My least favourite of the 3 films on same family. Not sure why but the family feel more self conscious this episode. Some camera moves too tricksy & staged at times considering the slow subject. (yanek)