10 Sep - Young art house auteur Azharr Rudin has managed a theatrical release for his meditative piece "Punggok Rindukan Bulan". Cinema Online managed to catch up with the director during the Malaysian press preview for the film before it went on festival tours.
In your own words, describe what "Punggok" is all about. It's a film about a boy, barely in secondary school, named Sidi, and his father Adman, who both unknowingly cope with the sudden absence of a key female figure in their life. The literal meaning of the title is a Malay saying - "like the owl misses the moon" - a reflection of unrequited and unconsummated longing. Heavy stuff, eh? What was the most difficult thing about this project? The most difficult thing about it was perhaps getting people to believe in it as much as I do. But I can't blame them, this is my 'alternative cinema' - hehe. Are you disappointed with the current market in Malaysia where art films do not do well in cinemas? I would be disappointed if I wasn't a realist. Art films are niche all over the world. It's so niche that they had created a separate label for it - "art film". See? I think like people: movies should be seen as movies first. And also perhaps this type of film is at a certain disadvantage because it is screened with the same system as all other films. The distribution system can definitely be improved. If you look at say, in the U.S. or Europe, there are many specialised cinemas where films have the option of screening in different runs at many different places. Here, if you choose to screen your film with a certain cinema operator that screens this type of film, you don't get to show your film at another exhibitor that also screens this kind of film. And how many digital halls do we have here? That's only for starters.