Shape of the moon (Stand van de maan)

Filmed in the tradition of Cinéma Verité, this documentary portrays three generations of a family in Jakarta. Helmrich shoots in a highly intimate style, with acrobatic takes recalling early Soviet cinema that reveal surprising skill and delicateness. Above all, the film shows his empathy with a family that takes him in as one of their own and which is from the same town in which he was born and spent a good deal of his adult life until he emigrated to the Netherlands.

Stand van de maan (Shape of the Moon), Leonard Retel Helmrich, The Netherlands, 2004. 92', 35 mm