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‘Salawaku’ to have world premiere at Tokyo International Film Festival
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Elko Kastanya (left) and Karina Salim (right) in one of the scenes from 'Salawaku' (Official Film Salawaku YouTube channel/File)
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ollowing its success at the Indonesian Film Appreciation awards, road-drama Salawaku is set to compete and premier globally in the Asian Future category at the 2016 Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) in Japan. Salawaku is also nominated for eight categories at the Indonesian Film Festival (FFI), two of which are Best Film and Best Director.
As the directorial debut of Pritagita Arianegara, Salawaku narrates the story of Salawaku (Elko Kastanya), a boy who lives in a small village in Seram Island, Maluku. One day his sister Binaiya (Raihaanun) goes missing and Salawaku escapes from his village to find her. In the middle of his journey, Salawaku meets Jakartan tourist Saras (Karina Salim) and Kawanua (JFlow Matulessy), who later help him search for his sister.
Initially, the film was to be released locally before going global. Now, however, Salawaku will only be available for local audiences in early 2017 due to the upcoming activity in Tokyo.
“The TIFF organizers only gave us two choices in terms of screenings; a world premiere or a film festival,” explained producer Ray Zulham.
“Of course we want to make Indonesia proud, so we chose the world premiere and postponed the local screening schedule.”
(Read also: Tokyo film festival lineup to include 12 Indonesian films)
While other films usually change their titles when in international competition, Salawaku will stick with its original title. “We prefer to use Salawaku, which expresses Indonesia more,” said co-producer Michael “Mike” Julius.
“We actually created this film to raise awareness of two important factors,” said Ray Zulham. “The first is about women and the second is about local folklore. Thus, we have told a story about culture in Seram Island that may be unknown to people.”
Karina perceived her role as a challenge.
“Saras is straightforward, risk-taking and a tomboy,” she said, adding that Salawaku was far from a romance film.
“My character Saras aborted her own baby and prior to filming, I learned from people who had experienced that.”
Karina's character, Saras, had an abortion and has trouble forgiving herself for it. She then goes on a trip to Maluku where she meets Salawaku.
Filmed in Piru in West Seram regency, Salawaku offers magnificent scenery of Seram Island, including its underwater beauty. It took more than seven hours for the crew to reach the shooting location.
“The shooting process took 17 days,” said Mike. (asw)
