Monisme

Duration 115'55"

Film synopis

Several professional actors and non-actor professionals portray a dynamic of human-nature relationship in one of the most active stratovolcano in the world, Mount Merapi. In the shadows of recent eruptions, these actors play a story that is written together with volcanologist, sand miner, and a mystic—people who have a close bond with the mountain, potentially illustrating fiction and nonfiction situations that could and would have happened in Merapi.

For festival distribution please contact Pascale Ramonda, Paris.

Full film available only in Indonesia for streaming in VOD at Bioskop Online.

Awards

Grand Prix at the 18th Five Flavours Film Festival, Warsaw, 2024

Jury statement: "We are pleased to announce the winner of the New Asian Cinema competition of the 18th edition of the Five Flavours Film Festival. Through an avant-garde formal approach drawing on shamanism, volcanology, and ecocriticism this docufiction film explores alternative ontologies and the local myth. It deviates from conventional film form and challenges anthropocentric conceptions of our relationship with nature. The winner of this year’s New Asian Cinema competition is “Monisme” by Riar Rizaldi."

Golden Hanoman Award at Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival 2023

Jury statement: "Monisme is incredibly assured feature debut. The jury was unanimous in our appreciation of the film, in particular we admired the bold experimentation, the bravery of its movement between genres and different types of footage. Monisme is a complex story that can only be told through the medium of cinema and heralds a very exciting cinematic voice in contemporary cinema."

Best Feature Film at Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival 2023

Jury statement: "Ambitious and coherent, this striking debut feature commits to co-authorship in order to create a stunning and politically uncompromising kaleidoscope. Bringing myth and science, reality and fantasy onto an equal plane where there is no hierarchy of knowledge, this film presents a case study of ecological rupture with Indonesia's most active volcano Mount Merapi at its epicenter. The Best Feature Film Award goes to Monisme."

Film stills

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Film poster

This film is supported by Doha Film Institute, Hubert Bals Fund, Purin Pictures, The Tan Ean Kiam Foundation – SGIFF Southeast Asian Documentary, and Yamagata Documentary Dojo.

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Interview on Monisme:

De vorbă cu un regizor indonezian despre vulcani, șamani și paramilitari, interview at Scena9 (in Romanian).

The Film Comment Podcast: Flaherty Film Seminar 2024, report on Monisme at The Film Comment Podcast.