Wiek Lenssen Filmprodukties

RUFUS SAATI THE SPIRITS HAVE GONE

..............................................................................................................Watch film fragment on YouTube

(film/video 54' color/ b&w)

“Every tree here in the jungle is related to our ancestors. When all of that disappeares, then the basis of life in Asmat has gone too. And then I won’t have a basis myself anymore...”

(Rufus Sisumur Saati)

These are the words of a remarkable Papuan artist, who is living in the vast jungle of Papua (former Irian Jaya/ Dutch New Guinea). His daily struggle to maintain the nature and culture of the Asmat rainforest is depicted in this film.

TV-Broadcastings: France La Cinquieme,

Norway NRK-tv ,

French Guayana, New Caledonia a.o (RFO for Dom Tom)

Germany - Bayerischer Rundfunk for ARD- Telepool

Festivals: Pordenone/ Sacile/ Italy

‘Image by Image’ Amsterdam, Holland

Bilan Du Film, Paris, France

Ethno Film Fest, Berlin, Germany

STORYLINE

RUFUS is an Asmat Papuan and a sculptural artist. Out of the trees in the jungle he shapes his statues of wood, following ancient Asmat traditions. But his works also contain important messages for the future: the importance of maintaining the delicate balance in nature, and of maintaining the meaningful values of the Asmat culture. As an artist, these are the ideas he wants to pass on to next generations.

RUFUS SISUMUR: following Rufus in his dugout, the spectator is lead into the beautiful interior of the rainforest. Deep inside the jungle Rufus and his family show what actually forms the basis of the Papuan life. The jungle, inhabited by spirits, is an endless land of wealth and richness. By hunting, fishing, food gathering and by winning sago out of the sago palm tree, the Papuans have survived, for thousand and thousands of years, in a complete sustainable manner and in complete harmony with their environment.

RUFUS SISUMUR SAATI: from an Asmat point of view , life is a circel, instead of a line. During the Feast of the Spirits the spirit of the deceased SAATI enters the body of Rufus Sisumur. Only a few decades ago Saati was one of the most notorious headhunters of the big Pomatsj river. Rufus’ tribe believes Saati has returned to Asmat, embodied by Rufus Sisumur. In the same way Saati once lead the people in their wars, Rufus is leading his people in the battle against the destruction of the rainforest: against the commercial lumbering in the area.

RUFUS SAATI: THE SPIRITS HAVE GONE: in this film we get to know Rufus as a self conscious, intelligent and wise man and as a Papuan artist. Nevertheless, it becomes apparant during the film that even for Rufus it is very difficult to keep his balance in the advancing new world of money and trade. Increasingly more trees are cut without paying any respect to the spirits, only to gain earthly goods like clothes, Supermi or batteries for the radio. More and more the artworks are made for trading purposes, instead of trying to achieve a spiritual contact with the world of the deceased. The spiritual art of Asmat is taking the same way as the spiritual trees, it becomes a commodity. Eventually Rufus also looses, in a confrontation with the impostorous art traders, the Makassarans from the isle of Sulawesi.

Films shot in this remote part of the world are very rare, because of the harsh conditions, but mostly because of the official policy of the Indonesian gouvernent to keep journalists, fotographers and filmmakers out of their troublesome province. Wiek Lenssen succeeded in portraying the everyday life and problems the Asmat people are facing nowadays.

This film was an attempt to make an honoust portrait of a native minority, instead of providing a ‘western media-look’ of primitive people in an under-developed society. At the same time it is the story of an encounter between two cultures. Mutual respect between the maker of the film and the main character was something that was very important during the shooting of this film. It is clearly felt in the final outcome

The filmer, Wiek Lenssen, did not choose the roll of the ‘ well-informed western documentarist, armed with elaborate research and well-equiped filmcrew’ but to communicate on a level that is as equal as possible with the people depicted in the film. The camera is guided by the main character of the film, to bring the spectator in the same position that way: we are invited to come along while Rufus gets the space to show us his view on the changing reality.

The result is a fascinating portrait that reflect the special beauty of the Asmat tidal swamp area, and the drama behind the processes of change that are taking place in it. While the story develops, it becomes clear to the filmer, and on its turn to the spectator, how valuable and important this way of life, in and with the nature, really is.

Only at the end of the film the author takes some more distance, to overlook things on a broader scale. Rufus looses his position as our ‘guide trough the tidal swamp’ at the point where he enters ‘the modern world’. In the film this is: the big ship with the traders, that comes steaming up the Pomatsj river. The drama that is told this way in ‘Rufus Saati’, is therefore a very subtile, personified one. It shows how beauty and important human values eventually loose against ordinary commercial exploitation.