Review of Position Among the Stars (2011) by Eric H — 13 Jul 2016

The camera work was superlative. It felt like a genuine and intimate portrayal of life in Jakarta. Although it really made me question the line between being a mere fly-on-the-wall observer (and thus providing a more authentic picture), and being an active participant.

Most (perhaps all) the scenes involved incredibly tragic abuse and ignorance, including abusive psychological pressure to obey a religion (either the grandmother's Christianity, or the father's Islam), a hell-like hair-raising male circumcision scene, physical assault against an innocent girl for being too close to a boy (I'm not sure how the camera-man didn't intervene), rampant political corruption, and general disregard for education (they prefer watching fighting fish on TV, rather than learning to use a gas stove or other more prudent studies).

But such lifestyles are still the norm throughout the world, not just in Indonesia, so the film serves as important documentary evidence of the present state of our species.