Postcards from the Zoo

(festival title)
  • Indonesia Kebun binatang (more)
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Trailer
Indonesia / Germany / Hong Kong, 2012, 95 min

Directed by:

Edwin

Cinematography:

Sidi Saleh

Composer:

Dave Lumenta
(more professions)

Plots(1)

The zoo – a place of yearning. The zoo animals are yearning for freedom and many of the visitors long for adventure and the call of the wild. It is in these surroundings, where imagining yourself into other world is easy, that Lana grows up. When she was a little girl, her father left her behind in the colourful Jakarta zoo to be raised by zoo keepers. What dreams and longings does a young woman have who has grown up among giraffes, elephants and hippos? Is the cowboy who appears one day and is able to do magic merely a wish summoned into solid form, or is he real? Lana will assist him, and take her first steps outside her familiar world. But as suddenly as he appeared, the cowboy will disappear again by magic. On her own now, Lana begins to work as a masseuse at a spa. But the memory of the cowboy and nostalgia for the seemingly enchanted zoo will not leave her alone.
As with Edwin's internationally acclaimed directorial debut, THE BLIND PIG WHO WANTS TO FLY, the tone of new work POSTCARDS FROM THE ZOO has the feel of being similarly suspended in a strange limbo. A film which surrenders itself to the sense of longing it conveys. (Berlinale)

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Videos (1)

Trailer

Reviews (1)

Malarkey 

all reviews of this user

English I had no idea that the homeless are publicly living in an Indonesian Zoo and can, but don’t have to, help the animals. And that they keep coming and going. Otherwise, the film is quite complex. It doesn’t have a coherent narrative which you could hold on to. It’s rather a sort of mix of shots from Indonesia, which talk about the lives of the local people and animals. Some shots and information are rather interesting, others are completely useless. ()