Cannes. Serambi.

Serambi, screening in the Un Certain Regard section, documents the struggle of the people of Aceh, Indonesia, to recover from the tsunami that hit at the end of 2004. "When a world has been turned upside down, the reaction, even two months later when most of the film was shot, is still one of stunned disbelief," writes the Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt. Even so, "At 75 minutes, the film feels like an unfinished sketch. One can imagine either a follow-up film or an expansion of this one into a larger, more detailed work as time goes by."

In Variety, Justin Chang notes that the doc "scrupulously avoids milking tragedy for easy tears or pity."

Posted by dwhudson at May 24, 2006 4:31 AM