Position Among the Stars

For 12 years, film maker Leonard Retel Helmrich followed an Indonesian family from the slums of Jakarta and this resulted in the trilogy ‘Stand van de zon’, ‘Stand van de maan’ and ‘Stand van de sterren’ (“Eye of the Day”, “Shape of the Moon” “Position among the Stars”) Just as in the previous two parts, which received many international prizes, in the third part “Position among the Stars”, the maker shows us the underlying patterns of life in Indonesia. He presents that both literally and metaphorically with his revolutionary camera work. The Indonesian Sjamsuddin family is, in a way, a microcosm in which you can recognise the most important issues of life in Indonesia: corruption, conflict between religions, gambling addiction, the generation gap and the growing difference between poor and rich.