Stand van de sterren

For twelve years, Leonard Retel Helmrich followed the Indonesian family Sjamsudin in the slums of Jakarta. After Stand van de zon and Stand van de maan, Stand van de sterren is the final instalment of an award-winning triptych. The Sjamsudin family, portrayed in cinéma vérité, is the microcosm epitomising the key issues of Indonesian life: corruption, religious conflicts, gambling addiction, the generation gap and the growing inequality between rich and poor.
Bakti Sjamsudin comes to pick up his mother Rumidjah from her house in the country. He raises her granddaughter Tari. Since he has been appointed neighbourhood manager, he can no longer take care of her and neither can his wife Sri, for lack of time. Tari is facing her entrance exams for college. She is the family’s hope for a better future. Tari is very smart, but she is also lured by the temptations of modern life, like going out and mobile phones. At the centre of these vicissitudes stands Rumidjah, who watches her family bewildered and sometimes lost and who lets Tari win her over.