Cinema
The Arsonist
Kaki Bakar
U-Wei Haji Saari · 1995
Synopsis
In the Malaysian countryside, Kakang, an itinerant labourer proud of his Javanese origins, settles with his family on the land of a rich rubber plantation owner, for whom he works. He sees clearly the injustice that allows him to be exploited and responds by setting fire to the property of those who offend him. His youngest son, Kesuma, who shares his uncompromising nature, grows up between pride, fear and shame before this father.
Context
Adapted from William Faulkner's short story “Barn Burning”, published in 1939, the film transposes the American South to rural Malaysia. Shot on video in 1993 for public television, which rejected it, it was spotted by a member of the Cannes selection committee, Pierre Rissient, on condition that it be transferred to thirty-five millimetre film; the national film body financed this transfer. Presented at Cannes in May 1995, it was shown in Malaysia, in a few cinemas in Kuala Lumpur, only on 25 October 2001. The Asian Film Archive restored it in 2020 from a Betacam tape found the year before at the director's home, in Pahang.
Who it is for
Seventy minutes in Malay, subtitled, very restrained; it can be watched without knowing anything about Faulkner's short story.
Prizes and reception
The first Malaysian film selected at the Cannes Film Festival, in the Un certain regard section, in 1995.