L. R. Helmnrich Retrospective  

Rumidjah and her family lives in Jakarta, Indonesia. Since the fall of Dictator Suharto seven years ago, she has witnessed the country passing through a tumultuous period of socio-political chaos. Islam, the largest religion in Indonesia, is trying to maintain order and discipline, while becoming increasingly fundamentalist in its tone. Rumidjah, who is a Christian, has had more than enough of the capital’s chaos of these last years. When her son Bakti converts to Islam to marry a Muslim girl, Rumidjah seriously considers leaving the hectic city forever and moving to the safety of the countryside. The care for her thirteen-year-old granddaughter Tari is the one and only thing that still ties Rumidjah to the city. She decides to take her on a visit to her native village in Central Java. The countryside there is bright; the sun shines almost every day, and life initially seems full of promise. Rumidjah feels happy there, but for the girl there is no future in such an environment. Despite Tari’s desperate pleas to stay, Rumidjah sends her back to Jakarta with her son Bakti.

Festivals and Awards

International Documentary Film Festival Chicago (2005) – Best Cinematography Award
Rencontres Documentary Film Festival, Montréal (2005) – Audience Award
Sundance International Film Festival, USA (2005) – Award for Best Documentary
IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (2004) – Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary

Leonard Retel Helmrich

Leonard Retel Helmrich is a Dutch cinematographer and filmmaker of Indonesian descent. He was born in 1959 in Tilburg after his family repatriated to the Netherlands. He graduated from the Dutch Film and Television Academy in 1986. Inspired by the French film critic André Bazin, he developed his own cinematic style “Single Shot Cinema” the essence of which is catching real life moments while they are happening in one continuous shot with a camera that is moving around the subject.
His trilogy consisting of films “Eye of the Day” (2001), “Shape of the Moon” (2004), and “Position Among the Stars” (2010) provides us with an insight into not only family dramas—gambling addictions, parent-child conflicts, money problems—but also global issues such as economic inequality, religious conflict, and the rise of modernity in traditional societies.
He has taught masterclasses in various film schools around the world. A number of festivals have celebrated a retrospective of his films.

Selected Filmography

The Phoenix Mystery / Het Phoenix mysterie (1990)
Moving Objects (1991)
Eye of the Day / De stand van de zon (2001)
Shape of the Moon / Stand van de maan (2004)
Position among the Stars / Stand van de Sterren (2010)
Raw Herring / Hollandse Nieuwe (2013)