Mama'ku (2025)
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 57 minuten
Alternative title: Mama'ku – Van Jakarta tot de Molukken
Country:
Netherlands
Directed by: Sven Peetoom
IMDb score:
8,2 (70)
Releasedate: 4 June 2026
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Reviews & comments
Donkerwoud
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- 8855 messages
- 4034 votes
What is not spoken about.
'Mama'ku' (2025) is an emotional journey in the most literal sense: dancer Cheroney Pelupessy takes her mother to Indonesia to find answers to painful questions. Why did she ever leave that country? How was she shaped by her childhood of poverty and humiliation? Is there still a piece of themselves to be found in Jakarta or the Moluccas, or have they lost everything? And why have violent men been a constant in both their lives? The friction between mother and daughter is the warm heart of their search for healing, unification between different identities, and the will to move forward together. Director Sven Peetoom captures this particularly beautifully with the abrasive combination of raw documentation and hyper-stylized atmospheric images. The intimate confessions are uncomfortable and raw, while the mesmerizing dance scenes with Cheroney Pelupessy are metaphorically charged. Peetoom's intellectual approach to the medium leaves you wanting more, especially in combination with intercultural themes.
(And Sven, sorry man. I once sent you my first and last Tikkie for one drink. At the time, it was the reason I decided never to bother people for trivial amounts again.)
Translated from Dutch · View original
mrklm
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- 12404 messages
- 10481 votes
Award-winning dancer, choreographer, and theater maker Cheroney Pelupessy asked filmmaker Sven Peetoom to create a documentary of her attempt to better understand her mother, Laura. After much persistence, Cheroney persuaded Laura to accompany her to Laura's native Indonesia, hoping that Laura would finally be willing to speak about her past. In her monotonous narration, Cheroney acknowledges that Laura behaves differently in front of the camera, making it difficult to get a clear picture of the “real” Laura. The integration of expressive dance to portray Cheroney’s bond with the most important women in her life yields the most emotional moments in this interesting, but not entirely successful, portrait of the gap between an Indonesian mother and her daughter, born and raised in the Netherlands. It was often screened in art house cinemas in combination with the amusing comedy *Sudah*, in which the title character attempts to learn more about her grandmother through a photo album during a family gathering.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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