VOTE: U-Wei Curates For BAPFF, Selects ‘Terbaik Dari Langit’ And ‘Songlap’!

FILM director U-Wei Haji Saari has had a career spanning decades, speckled with some very impressionable films.

Perempuan, Isteri dan Jalang (let’s stop pretending that Jalang wasn’t part of the title), Kaki Bakar and Jogho were all critically-acclaimed works by a promising, intelligent filmmaker. Kaki Bakar for example remains the only Malaysian film to make it into the Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.

His last feature-length film, Hanyut (2011), remains unreleased in Malaysia despite opening in Indonesia last year.

For this year’s Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival, U-Wei was tasked to curate films for the Voices of Malaysia segment on top of being given a spot on the 2015 Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) International Jury.

“The best way for me to select a film is by the very simple reason that I like the film. Even if it’s my prerogative, the first criterion is always to like it,” U-Wei stated regarding his selection.

The Voices of Malaysia segment is meant to serve as an introduction to contemporary Malaysian cinema. As such, U-Wei picked Nik Amir Mustapha‘s Terbaik Dari Langit as well as Effendi and Fariza Azlina‘s Songlap.

U-Wei claimed that Terbaik Dari Langit is a “film of young filmmakers, by young filmmakers, but not just for young filmmakers”, while he deemed Songlap a “compelling and plausible dysfunctional family drama, with edge-of-your-seat action scenes”.

Terbaik Dari Langit (known as Nova internationally) will screen on 27 November while Songlap will screen on 28 November.

Accompanying the screening of both films will be U-Wei’s own Satu Nota Satu Fragmen, one of ten short films created by renowned Asian filmmakers for the Asian Film Archive to commemorate their 10th anniversary.

The Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival will be held in the city of Brisbane, Australia from 19 – 29 November and will also host the 9th APSA Award, the region’s highest accolade in film.

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