We present the list of winners of the ARKIPEL – 4th Jakarta International Documentary & Experimental Film Festival that was held from August 19th – 26nd in Jakarta (Indonesia).

Forum Lenteng Award

A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery (Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis) by Lav Diaz
Philippines | 2016 – 485 mins.

Based on the Jose Rizal’s El Filibusterismo in the late 19th century, this cinematic drama is interpreted as retrieval of the nature of the nation-state in the aftermath of nationalism, when the ideas and concepts of the pioneers of unifying the nation, the reality is now approaching extinction. Exposing long sequences within wide canvas, the film stretches the horizon of revolutionary odyssey of three nationalist-intellectuals colleagues as well as the traces of their liberte, egalite and fraternite that were also tried to be reached through poetry, art and cinema. Colonialism as a narrative of the traumatic was not a romance subsiding in the ex-colonized, with the Philippines as the realm of revolution fantasmagorie through figures of national, the shadow of people, the establishment of a personal, human, natural, and independence, as well as fatalism and the consequences of them all. (Catalogue)

What the jury said: Today, the concept of nation keeps on moving. Within it, the concept of identity, culture and diversity are always shifting. And also inside it, the myth has become a strong dialect for us to understand the world. This film gives cinema the opportunity to redefine “nation”. Realism in cinema becomes spatial, it is surrounded by the landscape, culture and tradition, identity, collective memory and the myths.

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Jury Short Film Award

An Inaccurate Distance by Giovanni Giaretta – Italy | 2015 – 16 mins.

Language is a way for individual to enter a society. An interpreter, an individual who attempts to bridge the language gap, holds the responsibility to interpret source culture and ideology to the target language. The horizon of language and cultural differences itself is presented through shots on personal properties of the interpreter who is also the film narrator, such as handwriting in Ukrainian and Russian, typewriter, photocopy machine, printed images, and paintings. (Catalogue)

What the jury said: Giovanni Giaretta’s portrait of an interpreter who, with his own voice-over, shares his self-taught history of learning a multitude of languages. The interpreters’ life history is presented through a dynamic series of static shots and simple pans of his notebooks, typewriters, photocopies and paintings. Giaretta’s caring camera brings languages to life in a deeply personal cinematic language all its own.

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Peransi Award

Kodachrome by K-14 Collective (A.Corniquet, J.Doigny, N.Lebecque, T.Mariage, L.Whishaupt-Claudel)
Belgium | 2013 – 63 mins.

Four Parisian young guys crossed to the continent for the sake of visiting the last Kodak filmlab store that was going to be closed, far away in the small town of Parsons, Kansas. They recorded the romance of the traveling with a rare Kodachrome that was successful they had. Consequently, the images of diary footages of their adventure explored in reverse, a passage of time from past to present, through a technology and old raw material of one of the bankrupt pioneer producer of moving image. This smart but exciting film invites a conversation on how analogia world reflect digitalia world as a distinctive visual material, besides it’s also as a social document turned on personally in a different time, now.

What the jury said: Although we find the last section of the film superfluous, we greatly appreciate this personal project by a group of young people documenting their journey to the last Kodachrome film lab in the world on the final days before the lab ceases to process this legendary colour film stock forever. The K-14 Collective has created a road movie without relying on sentimentality or nostalgia and simply shares its journey from Brussels, Belgium to Parsons, Kansas with a mix of humour, humanity and a strongly layered non-synchronized soundtrack.

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Jury Award

Trêve (A Time to rest) by Myria El Hajj – Lebanon | 2016 – 67 mins.

Trêve is a post-war film, meaning the film attempts to reveal several facts and emotions contained in the years after the Lebanon war. The film main focus is a war veteran named Riad El Hajj. Trêve does not have a fast tempo but throughout the film, the testimonies of Riad and several other veterans have the film spurring the audience’s curiosity on what happened during the war. The testimonies actually also reveals the buried amber of grudges, and it is directly confronted by the film maker.

What the jury said: The Juror greatly appreciates how this documentary presents, frames, and includes personal perspectives in a historical wound neatly hidden inside ourselves and our relatives. The humble frames transform the rigid tradition of documentary form, becoming lively in the hands of Myriam El Hajj. Trêve (A Time to Rest) successfully brings forth the complexity of historical issues. Site becomes something intimate and brings us to the very root of humanity that limits human beings. We were deeply touched by the young filmmakers personal courage. The Jury Award is given to Trêve for its accomplishment of presenting a delicate cinematic language in a film revealing something grand.

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ARKIPEL Award

Zone Zero by Farzad Moloudi – Belgium | 2015 – 105 mins.

When various individuals with different background are brought together by the Gesu Project, the use of a former Jesuit school building as a home for settler who are homeless, refugee, and without stable economy, an intense of competition for space rises. The process of identity merge, negotiation of each nationalism that have been embodied and the willingness to erase national borders, are shown through intimate images; the results of the camera ability to enter private rooms of the residents and simultaneously following discussions to create consensus and equal survival. Despite having a consensus and an established new system, the challenge to address the dominant system through the apparatus becomes a ghost haunting the formation of this global communal village.

What the jury said: For a few years, a diverse group of people from all wakes of life, those forced by bare life circumstances into a life as illegal migrants and those in search of ways to realise utopian social ideals, formed a community of squatters in the heart of Europe. Farzad Moloudi”s Zone Zero documents their life together, without resorting to stereotype in image or discourse, without falling into the trap of identity production, without relying on simplistic explanation. Always close to the events unfolding on the screen, but never transgressing personal borders, with a heartwarming passion for letting people be, allowing conflict around limited resources and social disenfranchisement appear in all their complexity, the filmmaker”s ethical stance truly impressed us. With simple means but a superbly edited structure and a beautiful soundtrack, this documentary draws its viewers into what must be seen as a highly relevant portrait of our current times.

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To know more about the festival you can see the FESTIVAL PROFILE or go to the official website to know all the screening times and dates HERE.