Iedil Putra & Interchange

Malaysian actor ledil Putra talks to theSun about his role in the much anticipated film Interchange and his love for acting. Here is the full article. 

Headline: Sticking to His passion 
By Bissme S 

Actor Iedil Putra’s dream of working with award-winning director Dain Said has finally come true. The 32- year-old has a starring role in Dain’s upcoming film, Interchange, a supernatural thriller that will open in cinemas at the end of the year. 
“I loved Bunohan, and I have always wanted to work with [Dain],” says Iedil.  
In Interchange, the actor takes on the role of forensic photographer Adam, who becomes psychologically traumatised after photographing numerous brutal crimes. 
Adam then locks himself in his condominium and spies on his neighbours, taking pictures of them. When the beautiful Iva (played by award-winning Indonesian actress Prisia Nasution), moves into his neighbourhood, a relationship develops between them. Adam soon learns that 
loving Iva can be a dangerous thing when he gets dragged into a dark world filled with blood and gore. 
“I knew I would be in good hands when I accepted the role,” Iedil says of Dain. 
He loves the fact that the director organised a lot of meetings and also conducted rigorous rehearsals with his cast before shooting began. “Dain wants his actors to get into the skin of their characters,” Iedil says. 
“I believe rehearsals are important because the director needs to convey his vision to his actors. Rehearsals also allow the director and the actors to find better ways to present the story to the audience.” 
Iedil adds that Dain loves to use literature as a reference, pointing out that the director’s office is filled with books. He was even asked by Dain to read Albert Camus’ The Stranger to better understand his Adam character. Since his character is from Sabah, Iedil says Dain got a dialogue coach to teach him the Sabahan accent. “A lot of East Malaysian elements can be seen in this film,” he says, adding that this is something we seldom see portray in local films. 
Describing his character, Iedil says: “Adam is filled with angst and is reserved. He is always questioning life. I am nothing like Adam. I am more easy going.” 
Iedil is also excited with the news that Interchange has been picked up by Paris-based distribution company Reel Suspects. 
“I am always jealous to see our neighbouring countries producing good movies that have been widely accepted in international film festivals and international market,” he says. 
“We should be doing the same. At the end of the day, as an actor, I want to be involved in good projects. We should be paying more attention on developing good scripts.” Iedil has been acting professionally since he was nine years old. 
His first attempt at acting was in a stage play, I Remember the Rest House by the late director Syed Alwi. He also appeared in a handful of other plays. But at age 17, Iedil received a scholarship to study medicine in the United Kingdom. 
“I did not want to burden my parents … so I accepted the scholarship. I thought I could take up performing arts as a hobby.” 
But Iedil could not see himself as a doctor “when I am 65”, so he quit his studies and became a full-time actor. 
“My parents were sceptical about my decision, but in the end, they gave me their blessing.” 
Iedil has since delivered some notable performances as an actor such as playing a racist schoolboy in the stage play Parah, and an arrogant actor in the film Terbaik Dari Langit. 
When asked if he has any regrets choosing acting over medicine, he says: “Sometimes the industry can kill your spirit, and there are times I feel jaded being a Malaysian actor. 
“It is difficult to get good scripts and good roles. Sometimes, you have to accept roles that you are not happy with because you have to put food on the table. 
“In some productions, I am given a script just a day before the shoot. Sometimes, the script gets written on the set just hours before shooting begins. How do you expect an actor to get into his character just hours before the shoot? 
“But I am passionate about what I do, and you don’t give up on what you are passionate about. You just stick with it.” 

KL24:Zombies

Malaysian film makers James Lee,  Gavin Yap  and  Shamaine Othman will be directing a Malaysian feature film that audience can watch for free in YouTube. Read about it in theSun today.

Headline : Creating Zombies
By Bissme S

HISTORY will soon be made when KL24: Zombies becomes the first Malaysian feature film that audiences can watch for free in its entirety on YouTube. 
The project is the brainchild of producer and director James Lee, who has previously uploaded several of his short films on YouTube. 
“My shorts are not as popular as cat and baby videos but still, I am please with the growing number of people who are watching [them],” Lee said. 
“I’m slowly building up an audience for my works on YouTube.” For KL24: Zombies, Lee has roped in fellow directors Gavin Yap and Shamaine Othman to co-direct segments of the film. 
theSun recently caught up with Lee and Shamaine to talk about the film. (Yap was in Singapore for a project.) Lee explained that he has partnered with local crowdbacking platform webe, which is providing funding for the film. The film, budgeted at RM200,000, starts shooting in July and the 90-minute movie will be uploaded on YouTube in September. 
“The most common way for a Malaysian feature film to reach audiences is to showcase at cinemas,” Lee said. 
But the director hopes to change this and find innovative ways to reach a new segment of the local audience. He pointed out that a movie does not remain on screen in the cinema forever as it will be replaced by other films. 
“But a movie uploaded online will likely remain on YouTube,” he says. 
Testing new grounds in the film industry is nothing new for Lee. In early 2000, when films were made using huge cameras, cast and crew, Lee hired a small crew and cast and shot his film using a digital camera instead. He is also one of the pioneers in the Malaysian independent film scene. His film, The Beautiful Washing Machine, won the best Asean feature award and the Fipresci Prize at the Bangkok International Film Festival in 2005. Lee then moved from making independent films to commercial films. However, some of his experiences in the commercial film industry were not pleasant. 
“I was begining to lose myself in the commercial film world,” he recalled. 
“Filmmaking was becoming just another job to me. My passion for it was slowly disappearing. All I wanted to do was to complete the shoot as fast as possible. 
“I felt that the way we tell our stories in commercial films is not progressing.” 
The increasingly-jaded Lee decided to explore other options in order to recapture his excitement for the craft of filmmaking. He went back to the basics of making a film. 
“In the past, I would have 30 people on the set to shoot a scene,” he said. 
Now, Lee has a much smaller crew and cast, and he found the whole experience to be very humbling. 
“It is like, overnight, you are no longer a millionaire,” he said with a laugh. 
However, he did not mind the changes. More important, his passion for making films has returned. His new philosophy extends to the planned schedule for shooting KL24: Zombies alongside Shamaine and Yap. Shooting will take place over 15 days in July, with each director given five days to shoot his or her segment.
 Yap’s segment deals with a dysfunctional Chinese family whose members are trapped together in a condominium with a Malay girl (played by award-winning actress Sharifah Amani), the girlfriend of the eldest son. The entire group must strive to stay alive while waiting for a zombie outbreak to be brought under control. 
In her segment, Shamaine is featuring the story of a rich man who has four wives. When one of the wives becomes a zombie, the other three wives want to kill her. But the husband goes all out to protect her as he loves her the most. 
The 32-year-old director and actress said her segment deals with the issue of polygamy. “I am anti-polygamy,” Shamaine declared. “I believe polygamy is archaic. In the past, it was practised because women could not fend for themselves. These days, women do not need to be rescued.” 
Though Shamaine admitted not being a fan of the zombie genre, she decided to be involved in this project because “I want to step out from my comfort zone and do something that I have never done before”. 
For his segment, Lee is portraying the chaos that takes place in the city centre when the zombie outbreak first begins. A group of humans must band together to try survive the flesh-eating horde. Lee will be featuring famous tourist spots around Kuala Lumpur, including the Petronas Twin Towers and Dataran Merdeka. “Zombie-themed films have always been popular worldwide,” said Lee on his choice of the genre. 
“I am also dealing with racial segregration in Malaysia in this film. Zombie movies are always a form of social commentary on the society we live in.” 

******
Footnote: KL24: Zombies requires support by members of the public in order to unlock funding from webe. Crowd backing is free, and can be done until June 12 via the webe community mobile app. For more, visit the webe website.

Wan Hanafi Su & Cannes Film Festival

 
The Malaysian actor Wan Hanafi Su walked at the red carpet at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival recently.  Before catching his flight to Cannes, he spare some time to talk to theSun  
His story was even  blurb at the front page of the sun. 

Here is the full interview   

Headline: Living Out His Dream  
By Bissme S

Veteran actor Wan Hanafi Su was the toast of the Malaysian film fraternity when he walked the red carpet at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival on Monday as one of the stars of Apprentice, directed by Singaporean Boo Junfeng. 
Wan Hanafi was in the French city for the premiere of the film on May 16 under the Un Certain Regard section of the film festival. This section was first introduced in 1978 to showcase films by young talents and to encourage innovative and outstanding works. theSun managed to catch Wan Hanafi for an interview just hours before he left for Cannes. 
“It has always been my dream to have one of my films premiered at Cannes, and I’m happy this dream is finally coming true,” says the 66-year-old actor, who has been in the industry for more than 30 years. 
This made-in-Singapore film centres on a young Malay correctional officer, 28-yearold Aiman (played by Firdaus Rahman), who is transferred to the country’s main prison. At his new workplace, Aiman meets an older sergeant (Wan Hanafi) who is later revealed to be the charismatic Rahim, the long-serving chief executioner of the prison. In his 30-year career, Rahim has hanged more than 600 criminals. 
Rahim also takes notice of the principled and diligent Aiman. When his assistant suddenly quits, he asks Aiman to become his apprentice. Aiman tells his sister, Suhaila (Mastura Ahmad), of his new job, but she becomes upset as their father was actually executed by Rahim. 
Aiman is faced with a dilemma: can he reconcile his conscience and a haunted past to take on the role of the next chief executioner? 
Wan Hanafi explains that he was offered the lead role of Rahim  because the Singapore production team was impressed by his performance in Bunohan. 
In that 2011 film directed by Dain Said, Wan Hanafi plays an ailing man who is losing his mind and is brutally murdered by his son. 
Wan Hanafi says he liked the Apprentice script. “The movie tackles the subject of the death penalty. Subtly, it discusses the issue of whether the death penalty should be abolished or not. 
“The subject matter is unique and interesting. That could [also] have attracted the attention of the Cannes film festival committee.” 
Personally, Wan believes that the death penalty should be abolished. 
“If we kill people, then we are no better than the criminals,” he reasons. 
He says he was impressed by the amount of research and preparation done by director Boo and his team before shooting began. Boo had even arranged for Wan Hanafi to meet and talk to two Singaporean hangmen. 
“I absorbed their experiences and their conflicts into my character,” Wan Hanafi says. 
The trailer of Apprentice looks impressive. Then again, giving impressive performances is nothing new for Wan Hanafi. 
He is known to go to extreme lengths to make his role convincing. For example, in the 2014 Lelaki Harapan Dunia, to portray a character masquerading as an Orang Minyak, Wan Hanafi stripped down to his briefs and smeared black oil all over his body
He says with a smile: “The only role I will not play is lelaki lembut (effeminate man). My wife does not like me to play this kind of role and I do not want to upset her.” He adds that his biggest challenge as a Malaysian actor is not playing a role but getting good scripts and challenging roles. “Most producers are only interested in making commercial movies because they want to make profits,” he laments. 
“Money should not be their only aim to make movies. Don’t they want to make a film where people will remember them many years later?” 
He also points out the lack of good roles for older actors in Malaysia, unlike in Hollywood, where older actors like Morgan Freeman and Meryl Streep still get challenging and meaty roles. “Older actors here are often  sidelined. Most producers want to make commercial films so they hire young actors to draw in the younger audience. “Of course, I feel disappointed and a little bitter about it. But you cannot remain disappointed and bitter forever. Over time, you have no choice but to make the best of your situation.” 
Malaysian director Liew Seng Tat, who directed Wan Hanafi in Lelaki Harapan Dunia, calls him “the most talented actor we have in Malaysia”. Liew adds: “He is like the Robert DeNiro of Malaysia. But he is under- appreciated here. He deserves any success that comes his way.” 
Asked about his chances of winning an award in Cannes, Wan Hanafi laughs. “ Winning the best actor award can be bad for your career if you are a Malaysian actor,” he says. 
“Producers will stay way from you because they think you will be too expensive for them. That was what happened to me when I won some awards. “Let me assure local producers that my fees will remain the same, even after I come back from Cannes.” 
When asked if there is any actor he wants to meet at Cannes, he says with a laugh again: “It will be great if I can be in the same frame with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro.” 
Both are his all-time favourite actors. Meanwhile, Apprentice has managed to grab the attention of international distributors in Cannes. The film will be shown in France on June 1, and eventually premiere in other countries like Turkey, Mexico, Hong Kong and China.

Scenes from Apprentice 

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

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2) The Story of the Lost Child

Author: Elena Ferrante (Italy)

Translator: Ann Goldstein

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3) The Vegetarian

Author: Han Kang (South Korea)

Translator: Deborah Smith

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4) Mend the Living

Author: Maylis de Kerangal (France)

Translator: Jessica Moore

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 5) Man Tiger

Author: Eka Kurniawan ( Indonesia)

Translator: Labodalih Sembiring

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6)The Four Books

Author: Yan Lianke (China)  

Translator: Carlos Rojas

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7) Tram 83

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

Translator: Roland Glasser

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8) A Cup of Rage

Author: Raduan Nassar (Brazil)

Translator: Stefan Tobler

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9) Ladivine

Author: Marie N. Diaye (France)

Translator: Jordan Stump

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10) Death By Water

Author : Kenzaburo Oe (Japan)

Translator: Deborah Boliner Boem

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11)White Hunger

Author : Aki Ollikainen ( Finland)

Translator: Emily Jeremiah & Fleur Jeremiah

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12) A Strangeness in My Mind

Author: Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)

Translator: Ekin Oklap

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13) A Whole Life

Author: Robert Seethaler ( Austria)

Translator: Charlotte Collins

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Eka... churning out another masterpiece

Lelaki Harimau translated into English ....