About film

For twelve years, filmmaker Retel followed the Sjamsuddin family in the slums of Jakarta, Indonesia. With his revolutionary camera work - long, uninterrupted shots and no interviews or voice-over - he provides viewers with a microcosm of life in Indonesia today: corruption, conflict between religions, gambling addiction, the generation gap, and the growing difference between poor and rich. The camera's broad, intuitive movements are distinctive, as 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. This film won the major prize recently at IDFA, the world's foremost documentary festival.