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Kimo Stamboel & Timo Tjahjanto: Mo movies, Mo Brothers
(Courtesy of Mo Brothers)Filmmaker duo The Mo Brothers started the New Year to the tune of a huge fanfare as their much awaited psychological thriller Killers is slated to premier at the annual Sundance Film Festival later this month
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(Courtesy of Mo Brothers) (Courtesy of Mo Brothers)
(Courtesy of Mo Brothers)
Filmmaker duo The Mo Brothers started the New Year to the tune of a huge fanfare as their much awaited psychological thriller Killers is slated to premier at the annual Sundance Film Festival later this month.
The two men, who combine the forces of directing, writing and producing, had previously won praise and buzz globally for their vicious and violent slasher horror Rumah Dara (internationally known as Macabre) released back in 2010.
In the Japanese-Indonesian co-production Killers, which is the sophomore ' but no less bloody 'feature-length effort by the two, the filmmakers stepped away from the slasher-maker mark that they had been branded with since Rumah Dara.
Killers features Japanese actors Kazuki Kitamura and Rin Takanashi and Indonesians Oka Antara, Luna Maya and Ray Sahetapy.
The duo directed the movie with Muhammad 'Kimo' Stamboel as one of the producers. The script was entrusted to Timothy 'Timo' Tjahjanto.
Both men, however, have decided to break up and follow separate paths after the release of Killers.
Kimo and Timo, who are both 34 years old, said they were strategically disengaging for the next couple of years to allow themselves to grow as filmmakers.
'We want to see how we fare as individuals. We feel that we need time to fly solo,' they told The Jakarta Post recently.
Timo said they already began their new venture in Killers.
'Rumah Dara was a film for entertainment. We just had fun with the movie, making each and every set bloody and gory. With Killers, we had to make more of an effort to go deeper into the theme of violence as well as the characters,' Timo said.
'We intentionally wanted to branch out. The psychological thriller genre is hard to achieve. The knowledge and experience we gained through making Killers helped us develop more. We realize we cannot get stuck with the slasher genre,' Kimo added.
This year, Timo will work with Gareth Evans of The Raid fame to make hardcore action film The Night Comes to Us, which he has described as 'all-out brutal with no clear cut heroes', featuring Joe Taslim and Yayan Ruhian.
Meanwhile, Kimo will work on his movie about a zombie outbreak in Jakarta, 24 Jam (24 Hours).
Kimo and Timo met in 2002 when they were on a film production course at the School of Visual Arts in Sydney, a choice of study both had to fight their families to pursue.
'Since I was kid all I have ever wanted to do is make films. Come college time, my parents forbade me from studying filmmaking unless I went to business school first. I completed my business management studies and then went to study film,' Kimo said.
Kimo cited works by filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock as the most influential to him.
Visuals, images and drawing had been Timo's emotional catharsis and creative outlet when he was, as he described it, a troubled kid.
'I became interested in films as a teenager. I started with Hollywood films, but I became interested in foreign movies,' Timo said.
Timo remembered he was amazed by the humanitarian themes in Akira Kurosawa movies, but also had the same impression watching films by Roman Polanski, which explored fear and phobia.
Timo's father is a doctor and wanted his son to follow his footsteps. 'A rebellious teenager, I secretly attended filmmaking courses. My parents finally gave in and approved of my film aspirations,' Timo said.
The duo's collaboration began when Kimo asked Timo to be the director of photography on a student film project Bunian. They began making short movies together since 2003.
After graduation, Timo and Kimo went their separate ways before joining forces again in Jakarta. In 2007, they co-wrote, co-produced and co-directed Dara, a short film, which was later included in Indonesian horror anthology Faces of Fear in 2008.
'Putting our credits on the short movie led us to a fight. Both of us wanted our names come first; so we decided to make the moniker The Mo Brothers a solution,' Kimo recalled.
The duo plans to reunite after their solo projects.
Timo said Kimo was the Yang to his Ying. 'When making films I turn into a very passionate person; I tend to lose control and become demanding,' Timo said.
'We complete each other. Our teamwork has been tested throughout the years. After all this time we still click,' Kimo said.
