Film screening
The Carousel Never Stops Turning

Director: Ismail Basbeth, color, 84 Min., 2017 | Discussion with Cornelio Sunny after screening

28.08.2018
7 PM
07:00 GoetheHaus Jakarta

Cast:
Cornelio Sunny, Dea Ananda, Gandhi Fernando, Giras Basuwondo, Ibnu ‘Gundul’ Widodo, Karina Salim, Leilani Hermiasih, Natasha Gott, Paul Agusta, Rukman Rosadi, Sekar Sari, Shalfia Fala Pratika, Verdi Solaiman, Yan Widjaya

This film combines various narratives: it’s about an accountant who cannot leave behind the memory of his late wife, about newlyweds spending their honeymoon at a zoo, about three girl band members who travel across the countryside for inspiration, about a prostitute who contemplates an escape plan from her current life, about a woman looking for her mother’s murderer and her encounter with a wandering ghost, about two farmers who protest against their eviction by the state and about a car that witnesses everything. These stories draw a picture of today’s Indonesia, in terms of economy, politics, art and culture, society, law and history.

Ismail Basbeth

Born in Wonosobo, Central Java, Indonesia in 1985.

He studied traditional music and communication before falling in love with filmmaking. He is a self-taught filmmaker, alumni of the Berlinale Talent Campus in Germany and the Asian Film Academy in South Korea where he won the BFC & SHOCS Scholarship Fund. Since 2008, he has directed and produced ten short films, which have been highlighted in prestigious national and international film festivals, before making feature films. Another Trip to the Moon (2015), his first feature film, was nominated for the HIVOS-Tiger Award and the NETPAC Award of the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2015. His second feature The Crescent Moon (2015) was nominated for the Asian Future Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival 2015, and in seven categories, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director at the Indonesian Film Festival 2015, while Talak 3 (2016), a critically acclaimed film that was listed among the Top 15 of Indonesian box-office hits in 2016, was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Indonesian Film Festival 2016. The Carousel Never Stops Turning (2017) is his fourth feature film and was nominated for the Kim Ji-seok Award at the Busan International Film Festival 2017 and officially selected for the Tokyo International Film Festival 2017. His latest works include a short film entitled Woo Woo (or Those Silence That Kills You and Me) and his fifth feature film, a novel adaptation of Arini; both will be released in 2018.

He is a producer and the founder of Matta Cinema, a production house which focuses on producing audience and artistic films by working with unique and creative directors for global audiences. He is also a producer and founder of Bosan Berisik Lab, a non-profit inter-disciplinary laboratory that empowers young filmmakers and artists to create creative and experimental works. He is also one of the co-founders and a film programmer of Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival, a premiere film festival that highlights the development of Asian cinema and is screened annually in the cultural city Yogyakarta, Indonesia.