Mothers in Overseas

I had interviewed three women who have to work in foreign land to give better future to their children. This story was published on May 6 in theSun. Here is the full story  

Headline :All For Love of Their Children 
By Bissme S

Being apart from your flesh and blood is a
painful experience for any mother.
Lhea Nalam, 39, from Clark, Pampanga, in the
Philippines has to endure this misery.
Well-paid jobs were difficult to find in her
country. “I suggested to my husband that he should find a job abroad so we can give a better future to our two children,” she recalls.
Unfortunately, her husband was not too keen to
take the risk of leaving his comfortable home.
So, Lhea decided to act and found a job as a maid in Malaysia. That was in 2005. When she left home to come to Malaysia, her son, Kim Villanueva, was only seven years old then and
her daughter, Jade, a mere 11 months old.
“At the airport, Jade was crying pitifully,” Lhea
remembers. 
“She did not want me to leave her. She was just a toddler who needed her mother’s love.
“Seeing my daughter in tears nearly broke my heart. I was crying throughout my journey to Malaysia.”
Less than a year later, she learned that her husband had abandoned her and their two children for another woman.
Instead of giving up and wasting tears on her
misfortune, she focused her energy on work so that she could build a better future for
her children.
Because her first employer did not allow her to own a handphone, Lhea says she was only allowed to call home and speak to her children for only 15 minutes once a month.
Her first call home was filled with tears. She says:
“I was crying here, and my son was crying on the other end. I missed my son and he missed his mother. We were crying more than talking on
the phone.”
For the last few years, Lhea has been a freelance maid, working for several houses.
“I have the flexibility to call my children anytime I want,” she says.
She is proud that her son Kim, now 18, and her
daughter Jade, now 12, are both doing well in their
studies.
The first time she returned home was in 2015, after having been away for 10 years working in Malaysia. 
“When I arrived at the airport in Manila, I recognised my son immediately,” she recalls. 
“I asked my son where his sister was and he pointed to a young girl who was standing next to him. 
“Can you imagine a mother not recognising her own daughter?” 
Endang Setiwati, 48, from Semarang in Indonesia, was in a similar predicament. Nine years ago, her husband left her and she was left to fend for herself and their four children. Seven years ago, she came to Malaysia to work as a freelance maid. “With the better pay, I could offer a better life to my children,” she says. 
“Any mother will be sad when they have to be separated from their children, and I am no different. But when I see my children living a better life, I feel my sacrifice is worth it.”
Endang keeps in touch with her children almost daily through Skype and Facebook. Every year, she returns home to spend at least two to four weeks with her family. That is the time she can lavish attention upon her children – Veranda Nilai Sari, now 25, Bobby Yanuar, 18, Brilla Anitya, 14, and nineyear-old Satrio. 
She takes them to the beach, buys them gifts and cooks their favourite dishes. 
“Every Mother’s Day, my children will send me beautiful greetings,” she says. 
Like Endang, 38-year-old Adele Sierra, from Bacolod in the Philippines, was also forced to become the breadwinner after her husband abandoned her and their two children. She came to Malaysia to become a freelance maid in 2009. She recalls having to wait for her daughter, Mary Jane Sierra, then eight, and her son John Ardek, six, to fall asleep before leaving them to catch her flight to Malaysia. She said: “If my children were awake, they would definitely cry when they saw me leaving the house with a big bag. 
“If I had seen their tears, I would not have the heart to leave them. I would definitely have cancelled my plans to work in Malaysia. ” 
Adjusting to her new life in Malaysia was not easy. Adele was crying almost daily because she missed her children so much. She kept telling her employer and her other colleagues that she wanted to catch the next flight home to be back with her children. 
“They told me to persevere because if I were to go home then, how would I be able to feed my children,” she recalls. 
She then resolved to be strong and put her full focus on her job. Looking back now, she is glad she did not give in to her emotions. Now, her teenage children are getting good grades in school, have good food to eat and also a proper roof over their heads. 
“I have to work till they graduate from college,” she says of her future plans. 
For now, she gets to spend every Christmas and New Year with her children in the Philippines before returning to her job in Malaysia. She does not harbour any resentment for not being able to have her children with her all the time. 
“I believe God has given me the courage to carry on with my life after my husband had left me,” she says

Lhea... was crying her eyes out

Endang ... wants to give better future to her children

Adele ... is happy the children is doing well in school

Interchange & Dain Said

The film director Dain Said speaks to theSun about his next film Interchange. Here is the full article 

Headline: A Mystic Connection 
By Bissme S 

Dain Said was kind enough to show me some scenes from his
latest film, Interchange, which opens in cinemas at the end of the year. I believe Interchange is going to be an exciting film.
Dain first shot to stardom in 2007 when he directed Dukun,
a film loosely based on the life of the infamous Mona Fandey
who committed a gruesome murder. Unfortunately, Dukun
was never released here by the producers.
Putting this devastating incident behind him, in 2011, Dain went on to direct Bunohan, a thriller drama about an intense relationship among three brothers and their ailing father.
Bunohan paid off handsomely with the movie gaining screen
time at several prestigious international film festivals. It also earned Dain a number of accolades, including best director and best picture, at the 25th Malaysian Film Festival.
Now, everyone is eagerly awaiting his next film, Interchange. Made with a budget of RM3.5 million, Interchange centres on forensic photographer Adam (played by Iedil Putra), who becomes psychologically traumatised after having to photograph endless pictures of the dead.
Adam locks himself in his condominium and soon develops a habit of secretly taking pictures of his neighbours.
The beautiful Iva (played by award-winning Indonesian
actress Prisia Nasution), who has just moved into the
neighbourhood, catches him photographing her. Instead of
getting angry, she befriends him and becomes his lover.
Adam soon learns that loving Iva can be dangerous, and he
gets dragged into a world filled with blood and gore.
There is no doubt that featuring tortured souls on the big screen is not a new thing for Dain. Is the director a tortured soul like his characters?
Laughing, Dain said: “I seemed to possess some of
those characteristics when I was young. Most people would
like to believe that I am an extrovert. But I can also be an
introvert. When I was young, I loved reading stories featuring
characters [fraught] with  intense angst. This kind of characters was far more interesting [compared to other characters].”
Interchange also stars another award-winning Indonesian actor Nicholas Saputra. The inclusion of these two Indonesian stars has led to some people insinuating that Dain does not have faith in Malaysian talents.
The director brushes this accusations aside. “One of the best things about our industry is our amazing actors,” he said.
“They can do their scenes in just one take. I have never doubted their talent.”
He explained that the plot features a tribal community from Borneo that speaks in an Indonesian dialect and hence, using Indonesian actors makes perfect sense.
The first time he met Prisia was in 2012, at the Asian Film
Festival in Macau. They became good friends instantly and
had always wanted to work together.
As for Nicholas, Dain has always been a big fan of his body of work, and felt it would be a wonderful challenge to direct this talented actor, who is known to be very picky about
his film roles.
Dain has played with mystic elements in all his previous
films, and he does the same in Interchange.
“There has always been mystic elements in my culture. Korean filmmakers have always taken a western genre, and injected their own culture into it. I am doing the same thing here.”
The inspiration for the film’s English title came when he was in Bangkok, doing the final editing for Bunohan.
He was staying at a residence right in the heart of the city, with
many tall condominiums in front of him and he could clearly see what was going on within the neighbours’ homes.
That sparked him to write the story for Interchange.
“This movie is about change,” Dain said. 
“Every character goes through some kind of transformation.”
Dain’s ambition to be a filmmaker started from his childhood.
“I grew up playing in the beaches of the East Coast,” said Dain who was born in Tumpat, Kelantan.
His caretakers took him to traditional theatre performances such as wayang kulit, menora and mak yong, held on the beach.
At age seven, he followed his parents to live in Egypt and
England but the sweet memories of those stories on the beaches
of his homeland have always stayed with him.
“After 26 years abroad, I knew I wanted to come home
and tell Malaysian stories,” he said

Siti Nurhaliza's Concert

Headline: Siti At Her Best 
By Bissme S

It was  indeed a concert to remember. That is the best way to describe the performance Datuk Siti Nurhaliza delivered at Kuala Lumpur’s Stadium Negara last Saturday with her two-hour concert entitled Datuk Siti Nurhaliza and Friends.
However, things started off on a worrying note. For an artiste of
Siti’s reputation and renown, the opening act was tame, lame and
dull.
The concert kicked off with a young girl dancing confusingly onstage. The dancer was supposed to represent Siti as
a young girl who dreamt of becoming an entertainer. However, I think the concept didn’t work out as intended. Instead of enchanting everyone, this act made the crowd restless. We couldn’t wait for the dancing to stop and the music to begin.
Thankfully, Siti soon appeared and saved the day, with her
opening song Aku Cinta Padamu. From that point on, the concert
was a rollercoaster ride of pure entertainment, as the singer had
the crowd of over 7,000 eating out of the palm of her hand.
Siti performed more than 20 songs, in celebration of her 20
years in the music industry. She also invited well known singers
from both Malaysia and Indonesia to join her on stage for some
memorable duets.
Many of her fans were waiting anxiously for her collaboration
with Anggun, the renowned Paris based Indonesian singer.
Anggun had flown in to Kuala Lumpur just hours before the
concert. Hence, they barely had any time for rehearsals. Yet, they
managed to give a remarkeable performance.
Their first duet was on Anggun’s iconic hit, Snow on the Sahara. Then, they sung one of Siti’s popular songs, Bukan Cinta Biasa, which had the crowd cheering wildly and enthusiastically.
Sometimes, when you have a duet with two skilled singers,
things can go terribly wrong. They may try to upstage one
other. Thankfully, that did not happen here. Anggun and Siti
complemented each other perfectly. It was just two good friends having a good time on stage.
At an earlier press conference, Anggun told the media that
she was glad to be a part of the concert. 
“I am here because I am her fan and her friend,” she said.
Besides inviting some of the region’s most talented singers to join her on stage, Siti also proved her mastery in creating a spectacular show.
She performed her first set of songs unplugged, then brought on
a live band to accompany her for her next set, and then finished the
final half of the show backed up by a full orchestra.
For me personally, the best duet of the night was when Siti sang her hit Biarlah Rahsia with Indonesian singer Afghan. The combination of his raspy voice and her powerful vocals provided a unique and interesting flavour for the evening.
The other memorable duet was when Siti performed her other
hit, Bagaikan Sakti with singersongwriter Faizal Tahir. She sang
the original version of the song with the legendary M Nasir. Here,
Faizal managed to put his own personality into the song.
The other singers who participated in Siti’s concert included local artistes Joe Flizzow, SonaOne, Hafiz Suip, and Jacyln Victor, as well as Cakra Khan from Indonesia.
During Siti’s costume changes, the large screen in the stadium
would show pre- recorded interviews of Siti’s family, friends,
work colleagues, and teachers sharing personal stories  about her. The best moment came courtesy of her mother Siti Salmah Bachik, who sportingly hummed the tune of her daughter’s first hit, Cindai.
One of the highlights of the night was when Siti fulfilled her dream of performing with the late Whitney Houston, singing a duet
on one of Houston’s unreleased songs, Memories.
Houston’s image appeared on the screen, and her pre-recorded
vocals merged with Siti’s live singing.
Adam Kidron, CEO of Yonder Music, the organiser for Siti’s
concert, later said: “When I met Siti, I asked who were her
favourite singers. She cited P. Ramlee, Celine Dion and Whitney
Houston. Then, I remembered [Memories which] was never
featured in any of her albums.”
Siti was extremely happy and grateful that her concert went
smoothly. “Tonight, I can sleep with a smile,” she said.
No doubt, most of her die-hard fans at the concert went to bed
with smiles on their faces, too.

Eka Kurniawan & Man Booker Prize

I carried an interview Indonesia author Eka Kurniawan whose book Man Tiger has been nominated for the prestigious 2016 Man Booker International awards.  The interview was published in theSun today.  Here is the full story....

Headline : King  of the Literary Jungle

By Bissme S

EKA KURNIAWAN, considered one of the most exciting, edgy writers in Indonesia, recently saw his book Man Tiger selected for the prestigious 2016 Man Booker International awards, with industry peers calling him the first Indonesian author to be nominated. The winner of the award will be announced on May 16.

 Man Tiger is a 2015 published translation of Eka’s original 2004 novel Lelaki Harimau, his second book after his landmark debut, 2002’s Cantik Itu Luka. He has since published Seperti Dendam, Rindu Harus Dibayar Tuntas (2014), and his latest book, O (2016).

In an email interview with theSun, Eka  recalled how he found out about the nomination. He says: “Some of my friends texted me the good news. But I didn’t get it. While waiting for my car to be serviced, I realised my mobile phone was full of missed calls and messages. Many of them were from journalists. I spent the whole day answering their questions.”

Eka  is extremely grateful that people thought his work was good enough to be nominated. Most of the time, he tries not think about the many accolades he has received for his books over the years.

Man Tiger begins with a young man named Margio, who violently murders Anwar Sadat, the richest man in a village. The story continues in flashbacks, where the readers learn that Margio hates his father for abusing his mother. He always had the desire to kill his father, but never found the courage to carry it out. The novel also blends in supernatural elements, where Margio believes a female white tiger is living inside him.

The inspiration for this story came when Eka heard about a violent murder that took place in his hometown years ago. He wanted to write a fictional novel about the murder, but eventually abandoned the idea.

“Then, a friend told me that he found a tiger in his bedroom,” he says.

“I do not know whether my friend was telling me the truth or if he was pulling my leg. Oddly enough, his confession got us talking about the stories of mystical white tigers we used to hear about as kids.”

It was then that Eka decided to revive his abandoned story, and blended it with the supernatural element of a white tiger.

When asked if he still believes in supernatural elements, he says: “If I believe in the supernatural, I have to prove that it exists, and I cannot do that. If I don’t believe in supernatural, I still have to prove it does not exist and I can’t do that, either. I am a skeptic but at the same time I love mystery in everything.”

He says his grandmother was the first person to expose him to the art of storytelling. She loved to narrate legends, fairy tales and the history of the village to him.

Another person who played an important role in his love for storytelling was a distant relative, an old lady who lived alone. Almost every evening, he and the other children would gather at her porch, where she told them magical tales.

His father, a tailor and a part-time English teacher, also played a role in instilling the love for stories in him. He would bring back books for Eka to read. From an ardent reader, Eka slowly progressed to becoming a writer.

One of the changes he loves to see taking place in Indonesian literature is an increase in Indonesian readership.

“Indonesia has a big population, but only a tiny percentage of readers,” he says.

“We need to build more libraries around the archipelago.”

When asked if stories should have messages that can change the society for the better, Eka answers: “Consciously or unconsciously, a writer always has messages in the stories. But the writer must understand that readers may interpret these message differently [from the original intent]. The readers may not see things the same way [as the writer]. The writer has no control over how his readers would interpret his stories.”

But Eka strong believes a story should not become a sermon.

“Once a story becomes a sermon, the story is no longer interesting.”

Side bar 

2016 Man Book Prize Nominees

1)A General Theory of Oblivion

Author: José Eduardo Agualusa (Angola)

Translator: Daniel Hahn

---------------------------------------------------------

2) The Story of the Lost Child

Author: Elena Ferrante (Italy)

Translator: Ann Goldstein

--------------------------------------------

3) The Vegetarian

Author: Han Kang (South Korea)

Translator: Deborah Smith

-----------------------------------------------------

4) Mend the Living

Author: Maylis de Kerangal (France)

Translator: Jessica Moore

------------------------------------------------

 5) Man Tiger

Author: Eka Kurniawan ( Indonesia)

Translator: Labodalih Sembiring

-------------------------------------------------

6)The Four Books

Author: Yan Lianke (China)  

Translator: Carlos Rojas

----------------------------------------

7) Tram 83

Author: Fiston Mwanza Mujila(Democratic Republic of Congo/ Austria)

Translator: Roland Glasser

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

8) A Cup of Rage

Author: Raduan Nassar (Brazil)

Translator: Stefan Tobler

------------------------------------------------------------------

9) Ladivine

Author: Marie N. Diaye (France)

Translator: Jordan Stump

------------------------------------------------------------

10) Death By Water

Author : Kenzaburo Oe (Japan)

Translator: Deborah Boliner Boem

-------------------------------------------------------

11)White Hunger

Author : Aki Ollikainen ( Finland)

Translator: Emily Jeremiah & Fleur Jeremiah

--------------------------------------------------------------

12) A Strangeness in My Mind

Author: Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)

Translator: Ekin Oklap

---------------------------------------------------------

13) A Whole Life

Author: Robert Seethaler ( Austria)

Translator: Charlotte Collins

---------------------------------------------------------------

Eka... churning out another masterpiece

Lelaki Harimau translated into English .... 

Redha & Tunku Mona Riza

Today theSun featured my interview with film director  Tunku Mona Riza about her film Redha. Here is the full interview  

Headline : Giving Voice To Autism 
By Bissme S


The challenge of raising a child with autism is the main focus of the film, Redha, which opens in cinemas on April 14. 
The film focuses on six-year-old Danial, who is diagnosed with autism, and the difficulties his family faces trying to reach him and raise him in a world that does not understand him. 
Produced by Current Pictures Sdn Bhd at a budget of RM3.5 million, Redha is director Tunku Mona Riza’s first feature film. The 49-year-old mother of two teenagers had previously directed commercials and telemovies. 
Mona  first encountered an autistic child 20 years ago, when she went to a close friend’s house-warming party and was introduced to his five-year-old daughter. 
The little girl was aloof and completely ignored her. It was then that her friend told her that his daughter had autism and that she should not take offence to the child’s “unfriendliness”. 
Mona says: “I did not know what autism was all about then, so I did not ask my friend to explain.” 
In 2012, she was searching for material for her next telemovie and decided to focus on the subject of autism. She contacted her friend and they had a heart to-heart talk about his daughter and her condition. Her friend also introduced her to other parents raising children with autism. The more she talked to them, the more she was convinced the subject would be best depicted as a feature film rather than a telemovie. 
“With a feature film, you can reach a bigger audience than a telemovie,” she says. 
“I want Redha to be a movie that represents the voice of families with autistic children, and what they have gone through to bring them up. Almost all the scenes in Redha are based on true experiences.” 
However, she adds that her movie will not play like a documentary on autism.
“I just want to pique the audiences’ interest to find out more about autism on their own accord.” 
Redha features two child actors in the role of Danial. Harith Haziq plays the sixyear-old Danial for most of the film, while Izzy Reef plays a 13-year-old Danial later in the film. 
“I was very impressed with their auditions,” she says. 
“They were not shy.” 
Most of the conflict in the film comes from Danial’s father Razlan (played by actor Namron), who is devastated to learn that his son has autism, causing him to become distant from the child. 
The 47-year-old Namron, whose real name is Shahili Abdan, says: “As an actor, I always want to use my talent to change society for the better. I am glad to say Redha is giving me the chance to do that. The movie not only entertains you but also creates awareness about autism. It tells you that no child should be discriminated against. All children deserve to be loved and cared for.” 
Being a father of two young daughters helped him play Razlan more convincingly. 
“I could relate to the emotions that Razlan is going through [as a father],” he adds. 
The role also presented other challenges. Some of the major scenes in Redha take place on a beach in Terengganu’s Redang Island. Because some scenes called for his character to swim, Namron had to take swimming lessons before shooting began. 
The actor is also joined by his wife, June Lojong, in the film as his onscreen wife Alina. 
Namron had to act out some tender scenes with June. He recalls: “Initially, I felt awkward doing all the romantic scenes with my wife in front of the camera and the crew.” 
With time, he learned to put aside his embarrassment, and enacted the romantic scenes with June professionally as an actor rather than as her husband. 
Another key player in Redha is Nadiya Nisaa, 31, who plays Danial’s aunt Sasha. She is one of the few people who loves and cares for Danial without any prejudice. 
Nadiya is impressed with the amount of research Mona has done on autism before the start of the shoot. 
“She is passionate about this subject and if you watch the film, you can see her sincerity shine through,” says Nadiya, herself a mother of a five-year-old son, and who is also expecting her second child. “Before shooting the film, I had zero knowledge of autism. Now, it is a totally different story. I am sure the audience will go through the same emotions that I am going through.” 
Mona also made arrangement for Nadiya to meet with several parents with autistic children, which helped her get into the character of Sasha. 
“I really admire these parents,” she says. “It takes so much grace and patience to love their kids." 

The director on the set

a scene from Redha

Hanyut & U Wei

I met the well known film director U- Wei Saari at Chawan, Bangsar and asked the following questions. This interview was published in theSun today. Here is the full article  

Headline: Bleeding For His Art  

BY BISSME S. 

Award winning filmmaker U-Wei Saari has put his heart, soul and sweat into his latest masterpiece, Hanyut, an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s 1895 debut novel Almayer s Folly. 

The story centres on Dutch trader Kasper Almayer living in colonial Malaya who dreams of finding a mythical gold mountain. He faces many enemies, including his own scheming wife, Mem. Starring Peter O’Brien, Diana Danielle, Sofia Jane, Adi Putra and Khalid Salleh, Hanyut (top) will open in cinemas at the end of this year. 

During a recent preview of a rough cut of Hanyut, UWei (below) answered some questions posted to him. 

* Hanyut has a budget of RM18 million. Some would say this is too much. 

Four years from now, everyone will say: ‘U-Wei was right, you need that amount of money to make an international film’. If you want a wedding dinner that [has good food], you have to pay for it. Same goes for movies. In the past, people said that my film Kaki Bakar (the first Malaysian movie shown at the Cannes Film Festival) was not a film because it was shot with a video camera. Now, many people are using video cameras to make films. 

*In all your films, your protagonists are always flawed. Why the fascination with flawed characters? 

“Angels are boring because they have no flaws. Angels are jealous of humans because humans have flaws. We have the choice to be good or to be bad. The best thing in life is to have choices.” 

*You like to feature bad marriages in all your movies. Any reason? 

“I am unlucky in that field (laugh). I write good bad marriages. Bad marriages give you drama, and a dysfunctional family is more interesting.” 

*What motivated you to turn Conrad’s novel into a movie? 

You cannot go wrong with a good book. Conrad’s not so condescending in the way he portrays us in his novel. It’s also interesting to see a white man afraid of a Malay woman. Conrad understands the mystery of a Malay woman. Men like to believe that they are smart and they can manipulate women. But in reality, women are the smarter ones, and they manipulate men.” 

*How faithful are you to the adaptation of this novel? 

The only thing you should be faithful to is to your wife and even that is very difficult for me. I believe in creative infidelity. I am not here to film his book. I am here to interpret it. When I made Jogho, I told the author (S. Othman Kelantan) that I cannot be faithful to [his works], and that his novel is just raw material to me. “In an interview, he jokingly said: ‘U-Wei is very clever and when he writes the script, he did not even see me’. But he likes the movie. I believe a filmmaker should not be intimidated by the author behind the book he is adapting.

* What do you feel when you watch Hanyut, again? 

I feel like throwing up. I try not to watch my movies after I have edited them. 

*So, you are not proud of Hanyut? 

“I am proud of all my works. But it hurts me whenever I watch my movies again. I wish I could have directed them better. “I always doubt myself [at every] creative moment. But doubt is good. Doubt makes you think. When you have doubt, you are not full of yourself.” 

*Your movies do well at international film festivals but never locally. 

I feel disappointed. I feel like Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. There is a famous line she said: ‘I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.’ I am the same. 

Her other favourite line is: ‘I don’t want realism. I want magic’. I want the same thing, too [for my movies].” 

*DuBois ends up in a mental hospital. Will you suffer the same fate? 

Sometimes, the Malaysian film industry can be like a mental institution – the haphazardness, the lack of infrastructure, and the regimented rules … We have campaigns like bring Malaysian movies to international cinemas and encourage filmmakers to think outside of the box. The clichéd taglines of these campaigns are not even fit to be written on a T-shirt.” 

*Why don’t you make more commercial movies? 

I want to hang on to my vision. I have to do the kind of movies I want to do. That is my curse. Of course, I get hurt a lot. But I survived. I can sleep easily. I do not suffer from bad dreams. Some make films because they want to tell the world they are filmmakers. That is why you see them rushing [around] making one film after another. I do not need that. I take my time to make movies. There are few things I want to say in my films. 

*What are some of them? 

Not all marriages are good. 

*Do you ever feel like quitting? 

I cannot give up because filmmaking is the only thing I know how to do. But there are times I’ve asked myself: ‘Why am I doing this? Am I a machoistic?’ Before I became a filmmaker, I only thought women bleed. Now I know I am wrong. Filmmakers bleed, too.

Train Station

Today, theSun featured my story on Train Station, a feature  that combines  40 filmmakers around 25 countries including two Malaysians,  Tony Pietra Arjuna and Isazaly Isa. Read the full story here  

Partners in Crime From left : Isazaly and Tiony 

Headline : A Real Global Effort

By Bissme S

They  say that too many cooks spoil the broth. But that does not seem to be the case at Detroit-based film production company CollabFeature. Its latest project, Train Station, which is currently making its rounds in several international film festivals, involved a total of 40 filmmakers from 25 countries taking turns at the helm. 

This film is likely to set a new Guinness World Record for the most directors in one film beating the current record holder, another CollabFeature project The Owner, which was helmed by 25 filmmakers. 

Train Station follows a single character, known only as ‘A Person in Brown’, as the character goes on a journey to major cities in the world such as Tehran, Berlin, Athens, Newcastle, Chicago, Dubai, Barcelona, Mumbai and even Kuala Lumpur. 

A Person in Brown is played by 40 actors of various ages, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation in the 40 different segments of the film. Along the journey, the character is presented with choices that trigger different paths, giving us a universal story of fate, decisions and destiny. 

Among the 40 filmmakers involved in Train Station, two are Malaysians – Tony Pietra Arjuna and Isazaly Isa – who handled the Malaysian segment of the film. Tony is both producer and director while Isazaly is producer and co-writer. 

Recently, I was given a chance to watch the full movie. Initially, I thought I would get confused with the character switching from male to female and from one race to another. Thankfully, the film was easy to follow. 

The opening scene shows a man at a train station who learns that his train might not arrive because of a terrible accident down the line. As the movie progresses, some segments show the character deciding to wait for the train while other segments show the character leaving the station and heading for home. But each of the character’s choice and journey is filled with memorable events and people. In one scene, the character gets robbed

while walking home. In another, he enters his house and finds out his spouse is unfaithful. 

The Malaysian segment opens with A Person in Brown (played by actress Annie Too) at a riverbank. She has just killed her unfaithful husband and her lover. Their bodies are wrapped in black plastic bags, which she is trying to dump into the river. At another part of the river, she sees a man (Michael Chen) also dumping some black plastic bags in the river. Seeing her having difficulty with her bags, he comes to her aid. The man later asks her out for coffee at a restaurant. As the two of them begin to get comfortable, she spots a policeman walking into the restaurant.... 

The story for this segment is written by Isazaly, who first got involved in Train Station back in 2011. At the time, he was intrigued by CollabFeature’s setup after hearing about The Owner. 

He recalls: “I was curious how they 18 got so many directors from different parts of the world working together on one feature film through the internet and without meeting anyone face to face.” 

Isazaly visited CollabFeature’s website, and when he heard they were beginning work on Train Station, he pitched his story idea on a forum, which was later approved. Sadly, Isazaly had to pull out from the project. 

“I had pending deadlines for many other film projects,” he says. “I had also just become a father and I wanted to spend more time with my daughter.” His place was taken over by Tony, who was impressed by Isazaly’s initial story and decided to keep it, with a few minor tweaks. Isazaly says he is extremely pleased with the end result. 

Now, he and Tony are planning to have Train Station screened in Malaysia. As Tony explains, “if you want different cultures in one film, this is the one you have to see”

Scenes from Train Station ( Malaysian Segment)