Position Among the Stars

Stand Van de Sterren

(Netherlands, 2011, 109 mins)

Executive Producer: Paul van Leeuwen
Producer: Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich
Screenwriters: Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich, Leonard Retel Helmrich
Cinematographers: Ismail Fahmi Lubish, Retel Helmrich
Editors: Jasper Naaijkens, Jos Driessen
Cast: Rumidjah Sjamsuddin, Theresia Untari, Bachtiar Becker, Sriwyati, Dwikomarisah, Bagus Nur Alam, Tumisah
Music: Danang Faturahman, Fahmy Al-attas

This is the final installment of Dutch filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich's multiple award-winning trilogy about an Indonesian family, but it stands magnificently on its own.

Shot in a radically original cinéma vérité-style, the film takes us deep inside the multi-generational Shamsuddin family, who live in the Jakarta slums. Through this intimate portrait of the family, which contains Christians and Muslims, old and young, ancient and modern ways, the filmmaker reveals the tensions and hopes that are tearing at Indonesia itself, a country on the rocky road to modernity.

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