HAF PROFILES


Red Umbrella Dirs Andri Cung, Edward Gunawan Country of origin Indonesia


Disillusioned by what they saw as the trend in Indonesia for cheapened horror films with low production values, local film-makers Andri Cung and Edward Gunawan decided to make a short film that offered a different kind of horror. “Andri and I started working together when we co-wrote a feature-film screenplay at a year-long workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia. Midway through the workshop, we directed a short film together — the short film of Red Umbrella,” says Gunawan. It was selected for several international festivals and


won the Best Asian Short Film prize at Screen Singapore which helped the pair develop the film into a feature. Centring around a taxi driver who picks up a beautiful woman who turns out to be a ghost, the feature is a mur- der mystery that eventually endangers the driver’s wife. Inspired by Indonesia’s heritage of realistic supernat-


ural cinema, the co-directors plan to shoot mostly at night and entirely on location, with minimal light in order to capture the authentic Indonesian atmosphere. Gunawan, whose first short film was the award-win-


ning Laundromat, made as part of Film Independent’s project fellowship programme in Los Angeles, is also producing for his company Add Word Productions (AWP), which he set up in 2006 to produce concerts, theatre productions and short films by young directors including fellow HAF entrant Lucky Kuswandi. AWP has also started producing feature films includ-


ing Nia Dinata’s Arisan! 2 and Germany-Indonesia co- production Children Of Srikandi, which premiered at the Berlinale Panorama in February. Originally a fashion and commercial photographer,


Cung worked as an assistant director for television before directing commercials and music videos. Red Umbrella was his first short, and popular Indonesian actors Atiqah Hasiholan and Rio Dewanto will reprise their roles in the feature project. In pre-production, Red Umbrella will be at HAF looking for funds, co-producers and pre-sales. Jean Noh


Red Umbrella


Budget $500,000 Finance $150,000 Contact Edward Gunawan addwordproductions.com


edward@ n 16 Screen International at Filmart March 19, 2012


Monsters Dir Kim Baek-jun Country of origin South Korea


Director Kim Baek-jun was inspired to write Monsters after hearing about ‘Bbang Shuttles’ — a slang term for victims of habitual bullying in contemporary Korean schools. The film will centre around an 18-year-old high-


school student who enlists a mentally ill girl to help him escape his life being bullied by another student. “I think it will be important to follow the emotional


changes of the main character. But not just as a personal story — bullying isn’t just an issue of a high-school rite- of-passage. It is part of a bigger problem of structural violence in society,” says Kim, who thinks the film will be in the same vein as his previous feature Farewell, which also dealt with problems in Korean society, and was selected for the Butterfly competition at the Cinema Dig- ital Seoul Film Festival last year. A graduate of Kyungsung University’s Department of


Theater and Film, Kim’s debut feature My Dear Diary played in competition at the 2008 Jeonju International Film Festival. Monsters is being produced by Korean outfit JK Film,


best known for commercial hits such as the 2009 tsu- nami blockbuster Haeundae, which sold more than 10 million tickets at the Korean box office, and Harmony, starring Yunjin Kim. But CEO Kil Yeong-min is also keen to work on smaller budget films and decided to produce Monsters after reading the script, which Kim finished last year. While the project may not be a typically commercial


one, Kim hopes to keep mainstream audiences in mind. With plans to set the film in Busan, the team will be at


HAF looking for funds, sales agents and pre-sales. Cast- ing is due to take place after HAF.


Jean Noh


The MacLennan Affair Dirs Derek Tsang, Jimmy Wan Country of origin Hong Kong


Based on a true story that occurred in Hong Kong in 1980, The MacLennan Affair revolves around the death of Scottish police inspector, John MacLennan, who was found dead in his room as officers arrived to arrest him for soliciting male prostitutes. However, a local councillor received a tip informing


her that his death was part of a cover-up to hide the iden- tity of homosexuals among high-ranking civil servants. The ensuing scandal and media storm led to the most expensive commission of inquiry in Hong Kong history, and eventually resulted in the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Hong Kong. “What drew me most to this story is how few people in


Hong Kong are aware that it ever happened. I’ve asked lots of people older than me and none of them can remember,” says Derek Tsang, who is co-directing with Jimmy Wan. “This was a big case and it’s a story that should be told.” Tsang and Wan are in the process of pulling together


research and hope to find a co-writer for the mostly Eng- lish-language script. They also hope to cast Western actors with international appeal. Tsang continues: “It is difficult to shoot Hong Kong in


the 1980s, so we might have to shoot somewhere like Malaysia. We also need to build a lot of sets.” The film will be produced by Hong Kong-based pro-


ducer Lorna Tee, one of the producers on the duo’s debut feature, portmanteau drama Lover’s Discourse, which was released early last year. Tee also recently produced Indo- nesian film-maker Edwin’s Berlin competition entry Postcards From The Zoo. Tsang and Wan also have a second feature in post-


production, romantic comedy Lacuna, set in Beijing and produced by Pang Ho Cheung, about a couple who wake up in bed together oblivious to what happened the night before.


Liz Shackleton Monsters


Budget $750,000 Finance $100,000 from private funds Contact Kil Yeong-min jungle1212@empal.com


merroo@hanmail.net The MacLennan Affair


Budget $5m Finance $20,000 private funds for development Contact Lorna Tee, Afterimage Production gmail.com


lorna.tee@


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