PA I N TI N G W I TH LI GH T S OU T H E AST AS I A N FI LM SE R IES M a r c h
t o
J u n e
2 0 1 6
FILM SCHEDULE DATE
TIME
FILM
DIRECTOR
YEAR
COUNTRY
Sat 5 Mar
7.30pm
Gurindam Jiwa (Sonnets of the Soul)
M Amin
1965
Singapore
Sun 6 Mar
3pm
Temporary Visa
Ghazi Alqudcy
2016
Singapore, Bosnia Herzegovina
Sat 2 Apr
7.30pm
Himala (Miracle)
Ishmael Bernal
1983
Philippines
Sun 3 Apr
3pm
Hustisya (Justice)
Joel Lamangan
2014
Philippines
Sat 7 May
7.30pm
Gánh Xiếc Rong (The Travelling Circus)
Viet Linh
1988
Vietnam
Sun 8 May
3pm
Bi, Ðừng Sợ! (Bi, Don’t Be Afraid!)
Phan Dang Di
2010
Vietnam, France, Germany
Sat 4 Jun
7.30pm
Ché Phawa Daw Nu Nu (Tender are the Feet)
Maung Wunna
1972
Myanmar
Sun 5 Jun
3pm
Return to Burma
Midi Z
2011
Myanmar, Taiwan
NATIONAL GALLERY SINGAPORE PRESENTS
PAINTING WITH LIGHT: SOUTHEAST ASIAN FILM SERIES Held on the first weekend of every month, Painting with Light is a film series featuring some of Southeast Asia’s best cinematic stories over the last hundred years. The selection showcases works from early to present-day cinema by veteran and emerging filmmakers, significant for their observations on art and subjects that matter in this part of the world. “Something old / something new”. The inaugural edition of Painting with Light pairs a classic and a contemporary film from a national cinema in Southeast Asia each month. An older classic that addresses an important issue of its time will be screened on the Saturday, followed by a more recent film with a contemporary view on the same subject on the Sunday. Curated by Philip Cheah.
First Saturday and Sunday of each month Sat, 7.30pm Sun, 3pm National Gallery Singapore, Auditorium $10 per ticket (includes booking fee) 15% discount for seniors, students and Gallery Insiders. Tickets available through the Gallery’s website and ticketing counters, and on SISTIC. Please refer to ticketing websites for updates on film ratings.
GURINDAM JIWA (SONNETS OF THE SOUL) By M Amin Singapore Malay with English subtitles 1965 | 84 min Sat 5 Mar, 7.30pm
Sonnets of the Soul follows the life of village farmer turned court poet Dahlan (Noordin Ahmad). After his royal appointment, he is not allowed to return home to see his wife, Dahlia (Latiffah Omar). At court, the prime minister’s daughter, the sophisticated Melati (Rahmah Ali), starts to woo him. This is echoed in a parallel scene when Dahlan’s best friend, Malek (Malek Selamat), chases Dahlia. The tensions in Dahlan’s life create the central dramatic dilemma. Throughout the film, he is torn between his loyalty to his family and to the Sultan, and the incongruity of being a village farmer and a royal poet. He fails to choose between two women: the simple and unquestioning Dahlia, and the refined but possessive Melati. In a bold stroke, director M Amin does the unimaginable for a conventional melodrama — he leaves the ending open. The cultural significance of Sonnets of the Soul as a Malay film cannot be overstated. Notable for the adventurous approach of its script and structure, most of the dialogue is spoken in pantun or rhyming couplets, which are mirrored in rhyming scenes. There is arguably no other film that accords the Malay pantun so much importance, and reveals the Malay language’s expressive and evocative qualities. At the story’s climax, for instance, Dahlan laments in a pantun: The wound on my head is visible, My heart is bleeding yet no one notices. M Amin once explained why he chose to use pantun: “I like the words of the Malay language. I want to show that the Malays do not always take up arms to stab the enemy; the Malays also pierce with words.”
Awards The film’s title song, Gurindam Jiwa, composed by the late Wandly Yazid, was voted Best Malay Song of the last 50 years by VivaMuzikSG50 in 2015. Pak Wandly was active as a composer, arranger and producer of Malay film music from the 1940s to 1960s. In 1964, he was appointed Music Director of Cathay-Keris.
DIRECTOR M Amin (1924–2003) is known for his work both as an actor and a director. He made over 50 films during a career that spanned Singapore and Malaysia. As an actor, he was notable in Hussein Haniff’s Hang Jebat (1961) and Dang Anom (1962), and L Krishnan’s Love of the Jungle Girl (1957). As a director, his landmark films were Cucu Datuk Merah (1963), Aku Mahu Hidup (I Want to Live, 1970) and Gurindam Jiwa (Sonnets of the Soul, 1965).
Photographs courtesy of Cathay-Keris Films Pte Ltd Print source: Cathay-Keris Films Private Limited Contact: Chan Chi Cheong (chicheong_chan@cathay.com.sg)
TEMPORARY VISA By Ghazi Alqudcy Singapore, Bosnia Herzegovina Bosnian, English with English subtitles 2016 | 124 min Sun 6 Mar, 3pm
Jakub is in trouble for overstaying in Bosnia and is faced with the possibility of being deported if he does not obtain a temporary visa within five days. To apply for one, however, requires money that he does not have. Opportunities for easy cash are there but are risky. Jakub resists these temptations, until he realises that everyone—including his girlfriend Emira who is stealing money from work to continue school— is doing what they have to do to survive. Under such circumstances, Jakub begins to grasp the true cost of this cross-border relationship. The film is shot with a hand-held camera that follows the characters through their environment. This gives the film a jittery, improvisational aesthetic that mirrors Jakub’s desperation and the instability of the couple whose time is also running out. Like Sonnets of the Soul, the tensions in Temporary Visa arise from the dilemmas of relocation. However, the world of Temporary Visa starkly contrasts the structured Malay society in Sonnets of the Soul. In Sonnets of the Soul, clear codes of conduct bind and differentiate courtly and village life; while in Temporary Visa, base survival instincts displace social norms governing behaviour and relationships. Consequently, the struggle to find a safe place, to establish a home, never ends. Director Ghazi Alqudcy’s first feature explores the global phenomenon of constant migration propelled by the longing for a better life. More specifically, the film captures the migratory impulse in Alqudcy’s own search for his place in the world, through the device of a foreign mirror.
DIRECTOR Ghazi Alqudcy (b.1983) is a Singaporean director who has made close to 30 short films that have travelled to film festivals worldwide, and is one of three young Malay filmmakers featured in a permanent video installation at the Malay Heritage Centre. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Filmmaking from Nanyang Technological University in 2012 and is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Filmmaking at Sarajevo Film Academy under the tutelage of the legendary Hungarian director, Bela Tarr (Satantango, 1994; Werckmeister Harmonies, 2000; The Turin Horse, 2011). Temporary Visa marks his feature film debut.
Print source: Ghazi Alqudcy Contact: Ghazi Alqudcy (ghazialqudcy@gmail.com)
HIMALA (MIRACLE) By Ishmael Bernal Philippines Tagalog with English subtitles 1983 | 124 min Sat 2 Apr, 7.30pm
Widely considered to be one of the top ten Philippine films of all time, director Ishmael Bernal’s Miracle is beloved by both critics and audiences. This is also due, in no small part, to the early but unforgettable performance by the Philippine actress Nora Aunor, who is petite in size but giant in stature. A young girl named Elsa (Nora Aunor) reveals that she witnessed a vision of the Virgin Mary on top of a hill during a total eclipse. The Cupang villagers are sceptical, until Elsa starts to heal. Word of her ability spreads, and soon pilgrims— the sick and the curious, rich and poor— throng the remote village. Before long, business opportunities become evident to profiteers. Some rent out their shacks to the pilgrims, and a local trade in religious items, such as bottled water blessed by Elsa, arises. Orly (Spanky Manikan), an independent film director, tries to document Elsa’s healing activities, but instead, shockingly witnesses her being raped along with her aide, Chayong (Laura Centeno) while praying on the hill. After the incident, Elsa gradually stops healing and also finds herself with child. When devotees discover her pregnancy at the end of a long drought that ravaged the village, they assume it is an immaculate conception. As critic Noel Vera observed: “This is Bernal’s film on faith and religion, and in many ways he flubs his message; in many ways the film is much larger than said message. He sets out to create an anti-religion picture and instead created a film that testifies to the awful, awe-inspiring majesty of a people’s faith.” Digitally restored and re-mastered by ABS-CBN Corporation in partnership with Central Digital Lab, Inc Awards Miracle has won multiple awards. These include Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Supporting Actor at the Metro Manila Film Festival (Philippines, 1982); Bronze Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival (USA, 1983); and CNN APSA Viewers’ Choice Award for Best Asia-Pacific Film of All Time at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Australia, 2008). The Filipino Film Critics’ Society voted it one of the ten best films of the 1980s; and in 2002, the same critics’ group named Miracle one of the best Philippine films of the last three decades, from 1970 to 1999.
DIRECTOR Ishmael Bernal (1938 –1996) was a filmmaker, stage and television director, actor and screenwriter. Considered a “genius of Philippine cinema” by critics, he was known for the melodramas he created which were inspired by feminist, realist, moral and social issues. His classic films include Nunal sa Tubig (Speck in the Water, 1975), City After Dark (1980), Relasyon (The Affair, 1982), Himala (Miracle, 1983), and Hinugot sa Langit (Taken from Heaven, 1985). He was declared a National Artist of the Philippines in 2001.
Print source: ABS-CBN Corporation Contact: Pia de Leon (pia_deleon@abs-cbn.com)
HUSTISYA (JUSTICE) By Joel Lamangan Philippines Tagalog with English subtitles 2014 | 120 min Sun 3 Apr, 3pm
Legendary Philippine actress Nora Aunor stars in this film as Biring, a supervisor working for a powerful human trafficking syndicate in Manila. Her job involves bribing the authorities to turn a blind eye to the syndicate’s illegal activities. To cope with her line of work, Biring chooses to see no evil, hear no evil, and looks after only herself. This proves to be an easy task until she is framed for murder by her boss. Forced to confront the reality and slow grind of the justice system in the Philippines, Biring is faced with the dilemma of being a victim or a perpetrator, and spirals down a path of self-recrimination. Director Joel Lamangan also directed the claustrophobic crowd scenes in Miracle, 30 years earlier, and returns to tackle the corruption of virtues in Justice. Both films explore how extreme poverty can force individuals to compromise their most deeply held principles. While the presence of the Church is all-pervasive in Miracle, it is relegated to the background in Biring’s world of easy money. Her Catholic upbringing tugs at her conscience, but it remains uncertain whether she will choose redemption. Awards Justice has won several awards including the NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) award for Best Film, Best Actress and Audience Award at the 10th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival (Philippines, 2014) and Best Actress, Best Screenplay and Best Editing at the 17th Gawad Pasado Film Awards (Philippines, 2014).
DIRECTOR Joel C Lamangan (b.1954) is a multi-award winning Filipino director who has worked in film and theatre in the Philippines and internationally. He acted and directed for stage and television, and also took on screen roles, before opting to direct films, making his film debut in 1991 with Darna. His notable films include The Flor Contemplacion Story (1995) which won the Golden Pyramid award and Best Actress for Nora Aunor at the Cairo International Film Festival (Egypt, 1995), Pusong Mamon (1998), Deathrow (2000), Hubog (2001), Huling Birhen sa Lupa (2003), Blue Moon (2006) and Deadline (2011).
Print source: Likhang Silangan Entertainment Contact: Lance Abellon (abellonlance999@gmail.com)
GÁNH XIẾC RONG (THE TRAVELLING CIRCUS) By Viet Linh Vietnam Vietnamese with English subtitles 1988 | 74 min Sat 7 May, 7.30pm
Director Viet Linh tells the bittersweet story of a small travelling circus from Hanoi which stops in an impoverished ethnic minority village in Vietnam’s central highlands. Through the eyes of a village boy, we witness the magic of the circus and the naive hope that illusion can be transformed into reality. As the circus owner asks for gold in exchange for watching the magic shows, the starving villagers abandon work on their farms to pan for the precious metal. The magic is ironic — each night they see rice pouring out from an empty basket onstage, but this is a mere act and they are not able to access it. Given his desperate straits, the village boy is particularly enchanted with this nightly marvel, and stakes his entire hope for survival on learning how to reproduce this “miracle”, even when the circus girl reveals that it is only a trick. While urban attitudes are typically influenced by modernity and rural sentiments shaped by superstition, here it is the circus from the city that is preaching the belief in the illusion of magic. A stunning reversal of the classic tradition-versus-modernity film, it eventually takes the village shaman to remind his neighbours: “If you want to eat, your hands have to work. Your head has to brave the rain and sunshine. There are no miracles.”
Awards One of the most acclaimed Vietnamese films of the 1980s, The Travelling Circus has won numerous international awards, including Grand Prix at Fribourg Third World Film Festival (Switzerland), Audience Award at Uppsala International Film Festival (Sweden) and First Prize at Madrid Women’s Film Festival (Spain).
DIRECTOR Viet Linh (b.1952) is a prominent Vietnamese film director. Acclaimed internationally, she has been working in cinema since 1971. She studied at the VGIK film school in the former Soviet Union between 1980 and 1985, and began working for Vietnam’s state-owned Giải Phóng Film Studio in Ho Chi Minh City upon graduation. Her notable films include The Birds Were Singing in the Quiet Place (1986), The Trial Needs a Presiding Judge (1987), The Travelling Circus (1988), The Devil’s Mark (1992) and Collective Flat (1999).
Print source: Vietnam Cinema Department Contact: Vu Hong Anh (cucdienanh@fpt.vn)
BI, ÐỪNG SỢ! (BI, DON’T BE AFRAID!) By Phan Dang Di Vietnam, France, Germany Vietnamese with English subtitles 2010 | 90 min Sun 8 May, 3pm
How is the adult world understood from a child’s point of view? From the corners of his family’s world, inquisitive six-year-old Bi observes their troubled lives as they each fixate on their secret fantasies. His alcoholic father begins an unrequited affair with a young masseuse. Subsequently, his mother throws herself into caring for her ill father-in-law with growing intimacy. Meanwhile, Bi’s attractive aunt is forced to consider marriage to a contractor, although she secretly desires one of her students. As the painful realities of everyday life drive Bi’s relatives to withdraw increasingly into their private reveries, Bi tries to intervene and draw them back to the present with his child-like offerings of gifts and affection. Yet the very nature of illusion is empty promise, and by deciding to pursue theirs, they arrive at loss. Director Phan Dang Di emphasises this element of desire through the film’s cinematography. The camera mirrors the adult gaze when it lingers indulgently on pleasurable things— a wild expanse of green undulating in the breeze, the act of washing, a touch— and thus explores a sensuous realm beneath the cold reality of factory labour, slum dwelling and an impending death. In the end, perhaps it is only in darkness, when one’s eyes are closed to the world, that one may begin to find one’s bearings once again. Awards Bi, Don’t Be Afraid! won the SACD Best Screenplay award and ACID/CCAS Support Award at the Cannes International Critic’s Week at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival (2010).
DIRECTOR Phan Dang Di (b.1976) is one of Vietnam’s leading young filmmakers. He graduated from Hanoi University of Cinema and Theatre and currently teaches screenwriting at Hanoi National University. His first feature film, Bi, Don’t Be Afraid! (2010) won both the ACID and SACD Awards at Cannes, and was screened in over 50 international film festivals. He wrote the screenplay for Bui Thac Chuyen’s Adrift (2009) which won the FIPRESCI Award at the 66th Venice International Film Festival. His latest feature is Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories (2015).
Print source: Phan Dang Di Contact: Phan Dang Di (phandangdi76@gmail.com)
CHÉ PHAWA DAW NU NU (TENDER ARE THE FEET) By Maung Wunna Myanmar Burmese with English subtitles 1972 | 106 min Sat 4 Jun, 7.30pm
In Tender are the Feet, director Maung Wunna offers an insight into the dying art of traditional Burmese theatre through classic melodrama—the love story of the troupe’s drummer, Sein Lin, and its beautiful dancer, Khin San. When Khin San leaves the troupe to pursue a film career, she breaks Sein Lin’s heart, symbolically signalling the departure from ancient forms of art. As Sein Lin says: “In this world, we move from one thing to another. But if you want something new, you have to discard the old.” This rupture is also reflected musically through the film’s soundtrack, which shifts from the classical songs of traditional Burmese theatre to modern Burmese rock ‘n’ roll hits from the 1970s. The conflict is further heightened when Sein Lin is asked to play in a jazz group and later in a pop band. Central to the film’s meaning, however, is the belief that both the traditional and the modern can co-exist. This is reflected by Sein Lin’s ability to perform both in Burmese theatre and in a pop band, as well as Khin San’s success in both Burmese theatre and film. Although this black-and-white film was made in 1972, during a period when the military government restricted the movements of Burmese travelling theatre troupes, it provides insight into the repertoire and everyday life of these troupes that staged zat pwe. The performance form, little known outside its native land, fuses elements of traditional hsaing waing ensemble music, royal court dance, and marionette theatre into an all-night outdoor variety show. Digitally restored by the Yangon Film School with the support of the Goethe-Institut.
DIRECTOR Maung Wunna (1947–2011) was a multi-award winning Burmese writer and director. He wrote his first screenplay Thaing Thamar (Master of Martial Arts) in 1969 before turning his hand to directing. His debut feature, Katipa Phanat See Shwe Htee Hsaung (Wearing Velvet Slippers under a Golden Umbrella), was released in 1971 and received a Burmese Academy Award. He directed a total of 20 feature films, including the popular 1972 work, Che Phawa Daw Nu Nu (Tender are the Feet) and Khun Hnit Sint Ah-Iwan (1990) for which he received his second Burmese Academy Award.
Print source: Pan Wai Wai Film Production Contact: Okkar (forever.mzm@gmail.com)
RETURN TO BURMA By Midi Z Myanmar, Taiwan Burmese with English subtitles 2011 | 84 min Sun 5 Jun, 3pm
Wang Xing-hong has been a Burmese construction worker in Taiwan for 12 years. Encouraged by the presidential elections in his country—the first time in decades — he is hopeful that life in Myanmar is changing for the better and decides to return. But his homecoming is also tinged with sadness as he carries the ashes of a fellow villager who had a fatal work accident in Taiwan. During the journey, there are propaganda songs about the blessings of democracy on the radio, and at home young people still gather daily to sing romantic ballads and dream of their ideal life, elsewhere. Xing-hong discovers that his younger brother De is about to leave for Malaysia, and many others still hope to immigrate to China or even America. Despite the estrangement that Xing-hong experiences in his hometown as a result of his long absence, he remains to search for viable employment and a new life among the markets and smuggling centres. Midi Z’s debut feature, Return to Burma, reflects the reality of a poor yet hopeful society through vivid images of the countryside and its community. The historic November 2010 elections referenced in this film led to the release of political figure, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest after nearly two decades. The tough, censorious nature of the country’s military regime however has endured. It is therefore not surprising that it took an expatriate Burmese to make this film, circumventing the obstacles by producing it outside the country. Using a hand-held digital camera and taking a semi-documentary approach, Midi Z is one of the earliest new local voices in modern Burmese cinema.
DIRECTOR Midi Z (b.1982) is a Myanmar-born and raised filmmaker. He received a scholarship at the age of 16 to attend high school in Taiwan and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Commercial Design from the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. His graduation short, Paloma Blanca (2006), was shown at Pusan International Film Festival and Copenhagen Film Festival. His debut feature Return to Burma (2011) was in competition at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and Pusan International Film Festival. He received a Hubert Bals Fund to make his second feature, Poor Folk (2012), and his third feature, Ice Poison (2014), won Best Film at the Edinburgh Film Festival, and Best Director at the Taipei Film Festival. His latest film is Jade Miners (2015). Print source: Flash Forward Entertainment Contact: Ivy Shen (ivyffe@gmail.com)
Philip Cheah has contributed to the scholarship, exhibition and development of Southeast Asian cinema as film curator, programme consultant, festival director, critic, editor and writer for over 30 years, and is widely regarded as Singapore’s pioneer advocate of independent filmmaking in the region. His extensive track record includes over 20 years of experience as Festival Director for the Singapore International Film Festival, Founding Member and Vice-President of NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema), Programme Consultant for the Hanoi, Dubai, Shanghai and Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festivals, Co-founder of the Southeast Asian Film Festival in partnership with Singapore Art Museum, and Consultant for Merdeka! The Films of Usmar Ismail and Garin Nugroho and Majulah! The Film Music of Zubir Said, organised by National Museum of Singapore. He also championed now world-renowned Southeast Asian filmmakers, Eric Khoo and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, at the start of their careers and organised their first retrospectives. Among the limited research publications on Southeast Asian cinema available, Cheah has co-edited several, namely And the Moon Dances: The Films of Garin Nugroho (2004), Noel Vera’s Critic After Dark: A Review of Philippine Cinema (2005), Ngo Phuong Lan’s Modernity and Nationality in Vietnamese Cinema (2007), as well as the English online version of JB Kristanto’s Indonesian Film Catalogue (1926–2007). He is also a sought-after Festival Jury member and has been invited to participate in numerous international film festivals incuding Pusan, Rotterdam, Berlin, Cinemanila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Yamagata, Jeonju, Puchon, Damascus and Montreal, amongst others.
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