Global Courant 2023-05-08 04:22:19
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — For 12-year-old Zaffan (played by Zafreen Zairizal), puberty is literally a beast. When she discovers her body changing in terrifying ways and her community sidelining her, Zaffan has no choice but to accept her true self and reveal her beauty, wrath and power to everyone.
Amanda Nell Eu is hesitant to reveal too much of Tiger Stripes’ plot, but her feature debut combines teen body horror and themes of female empowerment in a Southeast Asian setting and will make history this month as the first film directed by a Malaysian woman. debuts at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
Tiger Stripes is the fourth Malaysian film and the first in 13 years to be invited to Cannes, following Kaki Bakar (The Arsonist, 1995) by U-Wei Saari, Karaoke (2009) by Chris Chong Chan Fui and The Tiger Factory (2010) . by Woo Ming Jin.
It will compete for the Grand Prix at the 62nd Semaine de la Critique (International Critics Week), which runs from May 17 to 25 and is the program dedicated to discovering first and second feature filmmakers from around the world. It’s where acclaimed directors like Wong Kar-wai, Guillermo del Toro, Ken Loach and Gaspar Noé all started.
“I am so honored. It’s what the team and I have been dreaming of. I don’t think anyone will be ready for it because it’s a real slap in the face,” Nell Eu, a Malaysian of mixed Chinese and British descent, told Al Jazeera.
“Pranks aside, I hope that the themes and messages of Tiger Stripes will resonate with many people and that they will also enjoy the ride the film takes you.”
Nell Eu had the idea for Tiger Stripes in early 2018 and did much of the development work over the next two years. “We did a lot of labs and workshops and eventually went to international markets as well,” she said.
After the COVID-19 pandemic halted work on the project for about two years, the crew finally shot the film in 2022 in the wilderness of Selangor State, east of Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur. It stars veteran Malaysian actors Shaheizy Sam (Polis Evo 3, 2023), June Lojong (Roh, 2019) and Fatimah Abu Bakar (Imaginur, 2022), plus a trio of young and talented actresses playing for the first time – Zafreen, Deena Ezral and Piqa, who play the three Malaysian girls from a rural community.
Amanda Nell Eu says she’s obsessed with horror, feminism, and female monsters Courtesy of Amanda Nell Eu
Tiger Stripes, produced by Foo Fei Ling for the Kuala Lumpur-based independent film company Ghost Grrrl Productions, which she co-founded with Nell Eu, is a co-production between Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Qatar.
It was a decision that came partly from the knowledge that Malaysia’s Film Censorship Board can crack down on creative works that touch on the multicultural country’s most sensitive issues, from ethnicity to religion. Islam is the official religion of Malaysia and is followed by more than half of the population.
“As a filmmaker, I fully understand the issues of censorship and I’ve really tried not to let that get in my way, especially when writing the scripts and making the movie,” said Nell Eu.
“Maintaining the filmmaker’s vision, especially in a debut project, is always my primary mission as a producer,” said Foo. “However, producing a debut is not easy. That is why we have co-productions with several other countries, so that we can say as much as we want.”
Feminist Body Horrors
Nell Eu says she’s obsessed with horror, feminism and female monsters—all themes Tiger Stripes shares with her two previous shorts. Her 2017 debut, Lagi Senang Jaga Sekandang Lembu (It’s Easier to Raise Cattle), premiered at the Venice Film Festival and focused on the friendship between two teenage girls who fell by the wayside in a remote village.
Her second short film, Vinegar Baths (2018), tells the story of an overworked maternity nurse who is happiest when she wanders the corridors of the hospital at night and can finally eat. It won several festival awards, including Best Film at the Scream Asia Horror Shorts competition.
“I am a big fan of body horror. I just find it fascinating,” Nell Eu told Al Jazeera, citing the genre’s longtime Canadian director David Cronenberg and Shinya Tsukamoto, the Japanese director of the visionary Tetsuo: the Iron Man (1989), among her early influences.
“Creatively I try to listen to my body more than my thoughts and when I make decisions it’s my gut feeling, how my heart feels and what takes me somewhere,” said Nell Eu.
Nell Eu’s 2017 film Lagi Senang Jaga Sekandang Lembu (It’s Easier to Raise Cattle) made its debut at the Venice Film Festival (Courtesy of Amanda Nell Eu)
The idea for Tiger Stripes was born from her memories of puberty, a time when the director says she “felt like such a monster” as her body changed and didn’t like anyone looking at her.
“I think every person has a fear of their own body at some point in their life. So yeah, in my dark sense of humor, what if the protagonist really does turn into a monster?
To achieve this vision, Tiger Stripes uses a lot of special effects, makeup and props in the tradition of old-school monster movies.
“The challenge is that that means five hours of application and that was really tricky, especially because we were shooting in a tropical climate, which is definitely the worst environment to do special effects and makeup,” said Nell Eu.
Zaffan’s body modifications were brought to life by a crew that included veteran makeup artists such as Singapore’s June Goh and Dutch artist Rogier Samuels, who also worked on international films such as Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, Border and X .
“Just think of the challenge for (the actress) Zafreen, sweating inside, and when you remove the props, you see steam escaping… I am so in awe of her. She was so brave and looking forward to it. Her commitment is truly amazing,” said Nell Eu.
Punk rock meets Asian monsters
The name of the Tiger Stripes production company, Ghost Grrrl Productions, which Foo and Nell Eu co-founded, pays homage to the feminist Riot Grrrl movement, a women’s empowerment spin on the underground punk rock subculture that developed in the United States. States. Pacific Northwest since the 1990s.
The do-it-yourself, independent values inspired Nell Eu and Foo to pick the production’s teammates, make decisions, and “make a movie that I think is pretty punk rock,” said Nell Eu.
Ghost Grrrl seeks to amplify the voices of strong, feared and misunderstood women in cinema, particularly from Southeast Asia. “We are both women, both very feminist, and we believe a lot in feminism and empowerment, and we also want to celebrate and include more diverse voices in the industry,” Nell Eu told Al Jazeera.
But what sets Tiger Stripes apart from other female-driven horror flicks is its setting, which vehemently reclaims and questions the rich haunted folklore of Nell Eu and Foo’s homeland.
“Growing up in Malaysia is almost like growing up with ghosts and you always hear ghost stories every night,” said Foo. “Even as a kid I used to watch horror movies from Hong Kong and Hollywood before going to sleep and the scariest monster was always a woman.”
Vinegar Baths tells the story of an overworked maternity nurse who is happiest at night when she wanders the hospital corridors and finally gets to eat (Courtesy Amanda Nell Eu)
Nell Eu says she’s a big fan of the pontianak (or kunilanak in Indonesian), the vampiric spirit of a woman who died in childbirth, which appears in the folklore of maritime Southeast Asia.
“To me (the pontianak) is strong and powerful, the perfect embodiment of a feminist,” said Nell Eu. “I get inspired by these figures in our stories and culture and use them as a source of inspiration.”
But at the same time, the director does not try to stick to any genre or trend, even though she is a fan of the new wave of Southeast Asian horror, especially films by Indonesian directors such as Joko Anwar, Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto. , which has garnered acclaim on subscription-based streaming services around the world.
Nell Eu says it’s not for her to say where she fits in and whether Tiger Stripes will join that wave.
“I always felt that this is a very personal story and from that personal feeling it becomes universal. After the release we will see what the feedback is and what people’s reactions are, so it’s a bit too early for me to say.”
As she prepares for Cannes, Nell Eu is also in the early stages of planning a new feature film – a period drama set in the late 1930s, in pre-World War II colonial Malaya.
“I love that period, it was so colorful and so much happened,” she said. “Rest assured, there will still be genre and there will still be gore.”
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