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Two Indonesian films heading to Cannes 2016
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Filmmaker Wregas Bhanuteja (center) with the cast and crew of "Prenjak/In The Year of the Monkey". (thejakartapost.com/Dian Arthen)
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wo Indonesian films -- one feature and one short -- have been selected for presentation at the Cannes 2016 film festival, which is slated for May 11-22.
One of the movies, thriller-drama Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts, is the only film from Southeast Asia listed in the L’Atelier Cinéfondation category.
"The story centers around a woman in Sumba who is robbed inside her house. She fights back and beheads one of the burglars and carries his head around on a journey," director Mouly Surya told thejakartapost.com during a press conference held by Institut Français d’Indonésie (IFI).
L’Atelier is a program under Cinéfondation that aims to bridge young filmmakers, producers and international distributors.
The aforementioned movie project is still in preproduction and shooting is planned to begin in August or September this year. Filmmaker Garin Nugroho serves as the screenwriter while actress Marsha Timothy is set to take the lead role.
Also attending the press conference was Wregas Bhanuteja, the man behind the short film Prenjak/In The Year of Monkey, which was shortlisted in the Semaine de la Critique competition.
The 12-minute short tells the story of widow Diah, who is on a lunch break from her work. In desperate need of money, she offers Jarwo a single matchstick for the price of Rp 10,000 (less than US$1), explaining that he will have the opportunity to take a peek at Diah's body parts by lightning up the match in a dark place.
"The idea for the story came from a Yogyakarta cultural practice that existed in the 1980s. Nowadays, there aren’t any girls who do this anymore, and I want to implement this culture in today's era, but in a different context where Diah needs money so badly that she has to do this," said Wregas, who brought along the film's crew and cast.
The 23-year-old recalled that it had taken them only two days to shoot the movie and that they had decided to submit the project to Cannes three days before registration closed.
After Cannes, the filmmaker is planning to release the movie in Indonesia, with Yogyakarta slated for the premiere.
When asked what he would do if the movie won the Semaine de la Critique competition, Wregas jokingly answered: "We would have a feast of kambing guling [roasted lamb] in our hometown, Yogyakarta." (kes)
