There is an Indonesian saying that when the elephants are locked in a fight, the mousedeer would die in the middle. But in this documentary, the mouse deer does not die - instead, it manages to play between them and get what it wants. This film documents a post-tsunami and post-conflict Aceh, the second poorest region in Indonesia, where an international body is assigned to build houses, while an Acehnese village chief leads his people through the ups and downs of the ongoing reconstruction and rehabilitation process. The film very intimately shows how complicated it is to survive a traumatic event and then experience global intervention. Rebuilding a house in post-tsunami Aceh brings into play the whole

Sceneggiatura / Screenplay Aryo Danusiri
Fotografia (colore) / Photography (colour) Aryo Danusiri
Montaggio / Editing Darwin Nugraha
Musica / Music Thoersi Argeswara
Suono / Sound Eva Nuridasari, Andri Munadi, Aryo Danusiri
Produzione / Production UNHABITAT Indonesia
Anno di produzione / Year of production 2007
Durata / Running time 90’
Formato / Format DV

Aryo Danusiri

Born 1973 in Jakarta, 2005 he mastered in Visual Cultural Studies from Tromsoe University, Norway, with an ethno-documentary about West Papua, Lukas' Moment, awarded as Best Student Film at the RAI Ethnographic FF, UK. His first Aceh documentary, Village Goat Takes The Beating (1999), was an official selection at the 2001 Amnesty FF, Amsterdam. Since then, his works have been screened at various festivals like Brisbane, Taiwan and Rotterdam. Other documentaries: Viva Indonesia (2001), Abracadabra! (2003), In The Name of Sami (2004), A Mail (2005), The First Step (2006). His current project is Connexxcreen for Countering Fundamentalism in Indonesia. Playing Between Elephants is his first feature length documentary