Position Among the Stars forms the third part of Dutch director Leonard Retel Helmrich’s trilogy on the lives of an extended family, the Sjamsuddins, in the rapidly changing country of Indonesia. (The second installment, Shape of the Moon, won Full Frame’s Grand Jury Award at the 2005 festival.) This observational, intimate film exposes some of the everyday tensions within a family that is split between two religions, Christian and Muslim, and several generations. Grandmother Rumidjah moves from the countryside to Jakarta to stay with her son, Bakti, who makes a living breeding fighting fish, and her granddaughter, Tari, who is about to graduate from secondary school.

At times lighthearted and at others surprisingly poignant, this documentary is a testament to Retel Helmrich’s dedication to the Sjamsuddin family. Retel Hemlich employs his “single-shot cinema” technique here: long, uninterrupted shots with no voice-over that produce a startling immediacy. The access he gains into his subjects’ lives is nothing short of incredible, and the vivid scenes and stories in his film are not easily forgotten.  AK