Postcards from the Zoo

Edwin / CinemAsia / Indonesia / 2012 / 96 mins / Indonesian with English subtitles / Color / 35mm / San Francisco Premiere

Experience longing and enchantment, magic and reality through the eyes of Lana, a young woman who was abandoned in Jakarta’s zoo by her father when she was three years old. Raised by animal trainers and staff members, Lana only knows the world of the zoo, where the flapping of an elephant’s ears, the steps of hippos in the water, and the sounds of other animals provide the main… Show more soundtrack of her existence. The arrival of a handsome street magician, dressed strangely as a cowboy, opens her eyes to another life, and soon she follows him into the streets of Jakarta to become his assistant. There, far stranger beings await, including mobsters, schemers, and prostitutes. Directed by the acclaimed Indonesian filmmaker Edwin (The Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly), Postcards from the Zoo offers a captivating, poetic portrait of Indonesia’s capital city, moving from the serene habitat of the zoo to the harsher, just-as-otherworldly operations of a spa/brothel, where Lana’s journey continues. A testament to the continuing rise of Indonesian cinema, Postcards has been compared to Beasts of the Southern Wild—for its similar tale of a young girl’s upbringing—and the mystical, magical works of Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

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