Hivos Tiger Awards Competition section - ANOTHER TRIP TO THE MOON by Ismail Basbeth

The cinematic language becomes a universal and timeless language in Ismail Basbeth's stunning feature Another Trip to the Moon, which was presented in the Hivos Tiger Award competition of the 44th International Film Festival Rotterdam.
 
Ismail Basbeth's film is full of poetry and ambition. Gloriously shot mostly in the beautiful and mysterious Indonesian forest, this is the story of a woman who lives who has withdrawn from the modern girl with a girlfriend and lives like a mythical hero in a culminating life that is at once primitive and mythical. 
 
The film flirts both with fantasy, poetry and social realism. Beautifully shot, with a cinematography composed of static shots with the camera firmly planted on a tripod and the beauty of each shots as well as the players' interaction within its frame is beautiful and stunning also because of the automatic resultant glorification of the beauty of the Indonesian wilderness that spins out of the employment of such techniques.

 

On top of that, what is incredibly admirable is the way in which the film has virtually no dialogue and the characters perform in a pantomimical way. The idea behind it is to create a universal language of filmmaking and performance, and the choreography is at once studied but also radically spontaneous and never overdone - which leads to a rather charming and deep outcome. This also audaciously means that the actors also play the roles of animals in the film, and while this may seem unusual, it pays off and recalls some type of ballet on top of the metaphorical appeal that coats the film with a rewarding layer of priceless abstract representation. 
 
The overall process also accentuates one of the most important themes of Another Trip to the Moon, which is the contrast and influence of the Western culture with the Eastern culture. Therefore, almost every sequence reveals this contrast in a casual and yet enriching way. Whether it is sequences of meditation with a TV buzzing with static in thebackground, or even in the costumes of the girls living in the wild, that recall early matinee film costumes rather than actual genuine "rags and tatters" that might be worn by people living a primitive lifestyle.
 
Adding to the meditative nature of the film, Another Trip to the Moon moves quite slowly, and the pace pays off also because at its core, the viewing experience can be quite rewarding in a sensory way. Aside from the aforementioned wonderful photography, the careful attention paid to the sound is enchanting to the point where it blatantly induces a type of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR).