Shape of the Moon

Indonesia is the world's fourth largest nation, and home to the biggest Muslim community in the world. Going far beyond images of tsunami destruction or tourist beaches, Shape of the Moon follows one family navigating their country's myriad partitions: between urban and rural, Muslim and Christian, old world and new. Catholic widow Rumidja provides the film's anchor, as she struggles to overcome the chaos and poverty of urban Jakarta, and attempts to adapt to her son's recent conversion to Islam. With Jakarta growing ever more violent, and some of its citizens increasingly fundamentalist, Rumidja dreams of escaping to her native Central Java, but knows that its villages offer little hope for her or her small granddaughter. With Rumidja and her family, Dutch-Indonesian director Retel Helmrich covers the full spectrum of modern Indonesia's disorders and fears, as well as its successes and hopes. Capturing a notorious slum fire and some powerful anti-U.S. protest marches, the film also observes more quiet, everyday moments-of Rumidja negotiating with a creepy moneylender, walking across some vertigo-inducing bridges, or discussing Indonesia's mounting religious strife. Winner of the Joris Ivens Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Shape of the Moon provides a welcome look at a country whose turbulence-both economic and religious-may affect the future of the world.

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