1. Art and Diseño

19 Pontianak
Singapore / Malaysia
Horror / Romance / HD / Malay / Mandarin / 90 mins
Glen GOEI
Director: Glen GOEI
Producer: TAN Bee Thiam
HAF Goals: Funds, Co-producers, Sales agents, Pre-sales
Budget: US$2,000,000
Secured Budget: US$700,000
Director’s Filmography:
2009 The Blue Mansion
1998 Forever Fever
A beautiful, mysterious woman arrives in the village to seek revenge from Khalid, forcing him down
a dark path of murder, betrayal and witchcraft.
Synopsis
As the mystery surrounding this mysterious woman
and these horrific events begin to deepen, dark
secrets from a dark past are revealed that could
very well lead to the death of everyone in Khalid
and Siti’s village.
Later that night, two of the wedding guests are
found brutally murdered. At first, the villagers
dismiss it as a freak event. But it becomes apparent
quickly that all the people directly related to Siti are
getting sick, suffering from feverish nightmares and
inexplicable internal bleeding.
What was Malaya like in the 1950s, when Singapore
and Malaysia were seen as one entity by her British
colonial master? Post-war Malaya was thriving in
the arts. This also was the golden age of Malay
cinema – Shaw Brothers and Cathay-Keris began
their film productions in Singapore, then regarded
as the Hollywood of Southeast Asia. Horror films,
especially the Pontianak series, were blockbuster
hits, reflecting political and social anxieties in the
region.
Siti herself also feels like she is being watched. She
keeps cleaning the house because of a foul stench
she cannot get rid of. In the meantime, Khalid’s son
Nik seems to have made an imaginary friend, and he
can often be heard talking and laughing alone in his
room. When Khalid confronts Nik, he passes him a
package from his new friend, Mina – a long nail.
Khalid quickly leaves the house to find the village
bomoh. He confesses his crime of killing Mina
whom he had impregnated eight years ago, and
asks for his help to banish this Pontianak ghost. The
bomoh rallies all the men of the village and sets
out into the woods with torches to destroy the evil
spirit.
Director’s Statement
Whereas most Pontianak films are usually told from
the male perspective, it is my intention to create
a Pontianak film told from the point of view of
the Pontianak herself, not to demonise her but to
create a fully rounded character that the audience
can be conflicted over. Pontianak is not about
taming the female vampire. Pontianak is about her
fight for social justice.
The film will be a lush, romantic and sensual
horror, filled with gorgeous Kerbayas (traditional
Malaysian garb) and breezy Malay songs from the
period, with the glamour of a colonised balmy and
tropical Malaya in the early 50’s offering a fascinating
backdrop to the brewing supernatural undercurrents
of menace, secrets and temptations, all through
the masterful lens of acclaimed cinematographer
Christopher Doyle. Imagine it as a haunting and
sensual supernatural In the Mood for Love tale set in
the tropics with a Malay female vampire, clad in an
exquisite kebaya, gliding down the rows of moon-lit
hazy banana trees.
The Pontianak myth in Malaysian and Indonesian
folklore seems to me the perfect way to combine all
the elements that made Dracula such a terrifying yet
tragic tale and merge it with a unique Asian canvas
to introduce global audiences to a completely new
take on the vampire horror genre.
Producer
TAN Bee Thiam
Tan Bee Thiam has worked as a producer,
director and editor with the 13 Little Pictures,
an independent film collective whose films have
garnered critical acclaim. Based in Singapore, he
produced Red Dragonlifes (Special Jury Prize, Jeonju
IFF 2010); Eclipses (Pixel Bunker Award, Doclisboa
IFF 2013) and Snakeskin (Jury Prize, Torino FF 2014).
He is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents, Rotterdam
Lab and European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs
(EAVE). He is currently in post-production for
his debut feature, Fundamentally Happy, shot by
Christopher DOYLE.
Production Company
13 Little Pictures
13 Little Pictures is a film collective based in
Southeast Asia that has made more than 15 films
and organised three film labs in Singapore, Luang
Prabang and Bangkok. Projects the company
developed have been selected for Berlinale
Talent Project Market, Rotterdam Lab, European
Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE), Talents Tokyo,
Hong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF),
Busan Asian Project Market and DMZ Project
Market. To date, 13 Little Pictures’ works have
screened to international audiences in Rotterdam,
Berlin, Vancouver, Busan, Tokyo, Bueno Aires, and
more.
Director
Glen GOEI
GOEI is one of Singapore’s leading film and theatre
directors, whose Forever Fever (1998) was the first
Singapore film to be presented at Sundance Film
Festival and to achieve a worldwide commercial
release. The film was distributed in America and the
United Kingdom by Miramax, which then signed him
on an exclusive three-picture deal. The Blue Mansion
(2009) premiered in Busan International Film Festival
and won the Best Film and Best Director Awards
at the SPH Singapore Entertainment Awards. He
graduated from Cambridge with a Masters of Art in
History.
Contact
TAN Bee Thiam
13 Little Pictures
6 Kovan Close, Singapore 548199
Tel: +65-97689986
Email: [email protected]
HONG KONG - ASIA FILM FINANCING FORUM 2015
HONG KONG - ASIA FILM FINANCING FORUM 2015
88
On a warm Malayan evening in the late 1950s, a
small village helps Khalid and Siti prepare for their
wedding day. Everyone is having fun and the air
is thick with heat and passion. Yet, in the crowd,
a mysterious, stunningly beautiful woman stands
alone, watching the ceremony without expression,
her gaze fixed on the happy couple.
The ‘Pontianak’ in Malay and Indonesian mythology
refers to the vengeful spirit of a pregnant woman
who dies in the midst of child birth. It is one of the
most gruesome horror tales in Asian folklore but
at its core, Pontianak, like Dracula, is a tragic tale of
love and loss.
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