KAYU BESI
DCP 2K | 5.1 surround | 1.78:1 | color | 28’00’‘ | 2022
In the deep rainforests of the remote island of West Papua, men seek their fortune in ancient trees whose valuable wood they procure for the international market. Caught between the natural wealth of their native land and the inexhaustible demand of capitalist commodity production, the loggers face an impossible choice: either remain destitute and preserve the forest or destroy it for some loose cash and their children’s education. „Kayu Besi“ (translated as „Ironwood“) offers a tentative glimpse into their precarious work, following the men into a peripheral and unstable territory where the magic of the old is still at play, while the power of the new is already cutting its swathes.
With: Heindom Mambrasar, Hadi ‚Pur‘ Purwanto, Rudi Wijayanto, Gabriel ‚David‘ Klagilit, Sujarno & Wempi Klasin
co-directed with Andrianus Oetjoe
Festival Screenings:
DOK Leipzig – German Competition (2022)
Duisburger Filmwoche (2022)
Dokumentarfilmwoche Hamburg (2023)
River Film Festival Padova (2023)
NaturVision – Short Film Award (2023)
Supported by MOIN Film Fund Hamburg-Schleswig-Holstein, University of Fine Arts Hamburg, Goethe Institut Jakarta, Dok.fest München – German Composition Funding Award