Moon
Shape of the Moon
Stand van de Maan / Leonard Retel Helmrich / Holland / 2004 / 92 min / Bahasa Indonesian, Javanese
Shape of the Moon is the middle part of the cinéma vérité trilogy by Retel Helmrich about modern Indonesia. Rumidjah, a 62-year-old widow, lives in Jakarta with her son Bakti and her granddaughter Tari. Since the fall of dictator Suharto seven years earlier, she has witnessed the country passing through a tumultuous period of socio-political chaos. Islam, the largest religion of Indonesia, is becoming increasingly fundamentalist in tone, which affects the everyday lives of all Indonesians, no matter what religion they profess. Rumidjah, who is a Christian, has had more than enough of the capital’s chaos. When her son Bakti converts to Islam in order to marry a Muslim girl, she seriously considers leaving the hectic city forever and moving to the safety of the countryside where she grew up. The only thing that still ties Rumidjah to the city is the responsibility she feels for Tari: she knows that there's no future for an eleven-year-old girl in the countryside. A close and sensitive portrait of the everyday life of three generations sharing their worries about the present and their hopes for a better future.
screenplay | Leonard Retel Helmrich, Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich
camera | Leonard Retel Helmrich, Ismail Fahmi Lubish
editor | Andrez de Jong, Denise Janzée, Robert Broekhof
sound | Ranko Paukovic
music | Joep Lans, Ernst Jansz, Dio Oberon
