Promised Paradise
THE NETHERLANDS, INDONESIA / 2006 / Indonesian / Color / Video / 52 min
Director, Photography: Leonard Retel Helmrich
Script, Producer: Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich
Editing: Bas Roeterink, Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich
Music: Harry Roesli
Sound Design: Ranko Paukovic
Production Company: Scarabeefilms
World Sales: Smiley World Media Ltd. www.smileyworldmedia.com
The Jakarta-based puppeteer and troubadour Agus Nur Amal travels to Bali to seek those who were responsible for the bomb attack on a local nightclub in 2002. Humor is his main weapon. Before an audience of children, his storytelling on 9/11 in handmade “TV sets” gets his audience roaring with laughter, but then his shadow play switches to images of bomb attacks in Indonesia. Amal also consults a paranormal and asks him where the perpetrators of the attack are now. Traveling between heaven and hell, what is it that Amal sings?
Leonard Retel Helmrich
Born in 1959 in Tilburg, the Netherlands. Finished his studies at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy and made his debut with the feature film The Phoenix Mystery (1990). His documentary Moving Objects (1991) has won several prizes at international film festivals. Since 1994 he has divided his time between Amsterdam and Jakarta. In addition to attending workshops as a tutor, he shot several documentaries before and after Suharto stepped down as Indonesian president in 1998. |