At the Very Bottom of Everything

The Indonesian director Paul Agusta based his experimental film about experiencing manic depression on personal experience, while leading lady and co-writer Kartika Jahja is also manic-depressive. In ten chapters, animations and hellish scenes portray the mental state she describes in voice-over.

An experimental Indonesian film about manic depression. In a minimally furnished room, illuminated by a few bright neon tubes, a woman talks about her experiences with this affliction. She sits there smoking thoughtfully. At other moments, we see several versions of her at once, sitting and walking, tranquil and speeded up, moving forwards and backwards. These images are juxtaposed with portrayals of the mental state she describes in voice-over, in ten chapters with names such as ’ The Fall’ and ‘Broken Twigs’. Stop-motion animations show the collapse: in contrasty black-and-white, a half naked man totters across barren land; in close-up, flowers and dolls are in flames, rats gnaw at a body as it stumbles forward; naked, bleeding bodies portray hellish depths. The Indonesian director Paul Agusta based his film on personal experiences with the affliction. His English-language script was translated into Indonesian and adapted by the protagonist Kartika Jahja, who is herself a manic depressive. —International Film Festival Rotterdam