Bunohan: Home is where the heart breaks
- 9 years ago
Taking its title rather appropriately from the rustic village of Bunohan, where it is set, maverick director Dain Said's latest offering is ready to set spines a-tingle.
In this feature film, due to be released at the end of 2011, Dain explores the question of bloodlines through three estranged brothers—Adil the kickboxer, Ilham the hired assassin and Bakar the ambitious businessman, whose paths cross again in the rural Kelantan-Thai border.
As their fates entangle, the film, which like Dain's previously unreleased film, Dukun (based on convicted murderer and shaman Mona Fandey) deals with issues deep and unsettling.
"The film tackles subjects close to heart. Beneath its obvious plot is a commentary on our dying traditions and the damage we do to our environment in our relentless pursuit of money and power," he said at the sneak preview this week.
The theme of conflict and survival sets in early in the film as it opens to protagonist Adil (Zahril Adam of Karaoke fame), or as he is known to friends Bunga Lalang, fights for his life in a kickboxing (or tomoi) fight.
Pulled out by his friend, the young man makes a dash for survival away from his hometown. Unknowingly, his brother Ilham (seasoned actor Faizal Hussein) is set on his tail to redeem the debt of blood.
Meanwhile, Bakar (Pekin Ibrahim of Apokalips), the only of the three who 'made it' returns form the city ostensibly to care for his ailing father. But is he the only good apple in the rotten barrel?
As the three men return home in this unlikely reunion, what awaits is are revelations of their darker selves interspersed with memories of loss, longing and retribution.
Both gripping and languid, the 100-minute film takes viewers amid swampy mangroves and puts them in the front seat of nail-biting tomoi fights as Dain, with the help of his stellar cast, try to capture traditions now waning in fast industrializing Malaysia.
"I have a fondness for Kelantan and the east coast as I spent part of my chi
In this feature film, due to be released at the end of 2011, Dain explores the question of bloodlines through three estranged brothers—Adil the kickboxer, Ilham the hired assassin and Bakar the ambitious businessman, whose paths cross again in the rural Kelantan-Thai border.
As their fates entangle, the film, which like Dain's previously unreleased film, Dukun (based on convicted murderer and shaman Mona Fandey) deals with issues deep and unsettling.
"The film tackles subjects close to heart. Beneath its obvious plot is a commentary on our dying traditions and the damage we do to our environment in our relentless pursuit of money and power," he said at the sneak preview this week.
The theme of conflict and survival sets in early in the film as it opens to protagonist Adil (Zahril Adam of Karaoke fame), or as he is known to friends Bunga Lalang, fights for his life in a kickboxing (or tomoi) fight.
Pulled out by his friend, the young man makes a dash for survival away from his hometown. Unknowingly, his brother Ilham (seasoned actor Faizal Hussein) is set on his tail to redeem the debt of blood.
Meanwhile, Bakar (Pekin Ibrahim of Apokalips), the only of the three who 'made it' returns form the city ostensibly to care for his ailing father. But is he the only good apple in the rotten barrel?
As the three men return home in this unlikely reunion, what awaits is are revelations of their darker selves interspersed with memories of loss, longing and retribution.
Both gripping and languid, the 100-minute film takes viewers amid swampy mangroves and puts them in the front seat of nail-biting tomoi fights as Dain, with the help of his stellar cast, try to capture traditions now waning in fast industrializing Malaysia.
"I have a fondness for Kelantan and the east coast as I spent part of my chi