The man introduces himself as Samad, a university researcher on a mission to find and study the island’s rare population of leatherback turtles, and wants to employ the woman as a guide.
Zahara, who is a stateless refugee, is unsure whether to believe him – Samad (played by local actor Bront Palarae) is an intruder in the only place that has welcomed her.
Surprise quickly turns into fear. Is Samad an undercover immigration officer or, even worse, a policeman who knows that Zahara (Indonesian actress Asmara Abigail) is illegally selling turtle eggs on the black market?
Does he know she must eke out a living for herself and Zika, the young nephew she takes care of as a foster parent? And can the audience trust Zahara?
Against this background, the Malaysian time-travel revenge thriller “Stone Turtle” (2022) by Kuala Lumpur-based director Woo Ming Jin builds up a magnetic tug of war between masculinity and femininity, violence and innocence, deception and natural balance that has already impressed international film critics.
Woo’s film was the first feature in Bahasa Malaysia to compete in the main category at the prestigious Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, where it bagged the coveted International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) Prize in August.
The jury was impressed by the “multiplicity of perspectives on urgent themes such as violence against women, the question of who has a right to citizenship, and the way we deal with our natural environment”, Fipresci reported on its official Twitter page.
“The Fipresci Prize is one of the most historical and prestigious awards available in many of the world’s most important film festivals,” said producer Edmund Yeo of Greenlight Pictures.
He added that many great filmmakers such as Francis Ford Coppola, Edward Yang and Lav Diaz had received the same award at Locarno.
Social ecology
Yeo is also the director of a series of acclaimed features, the latest being an adaptation of “Moonlight Shadow” (2021), a novella by Japanese novelist Banana Yoshimoto.
“I’ve always been fascinated by nature, and the confluence between humanity and its natural surroundings is a theme that has informed many of my films,” Woo told Nikkei Asia.
“‘Stone Turtle’ is an evolution of my continued interest and study of social ecology.”
He said the inspiration came from people he met on the east coast, including villagers involved in illegal turtle poaching.
“I found that usually it is men who hunt for the eggs, while women help to sell them,” he said.
“Then a question struck me: could this enterprise be done without men involved? And thus, the idea of a woman living on a remote island, fending for herself, came to me.”
The result is a powerful, dreamy, tropical revenge thriller without a linear plot.
“Stone Turtle” makes use of jarring time lapses, multiple points of view, and elements of Malaysian ritual folklore, interspersed with animation by Paul Williams, a British designer who worked with Studio Ghibli.
The film references female-character-driven Japanese cult films of the 1960s – such as Hiroshi Teshigahara’s “Woman in the Dunes” and Kaneto Shindo’s “Onibaba” – and updates the feminist slasher-film trope started by the controversial ’70s American B-movie “I Spit on Your Grave” by Meir Zarchi with a Southeast Asian setting.
“‘Stone Turtle’ was made with a small, intimate team of people and actors I had worked with before,” noted Woo. “I wanted to return to the simple joys of filmmaking, and it felt like the crew was family throughout the entire shooting process.”
The film also features performances by Amerul Affendi, Maisyarah Mazlan, Samara Kenzo and Alison Khor.
The ‘New Wave’
After commercial Malay-language genre features such as “Zombitopia” (2021), “Stone Turtle” marks Woo’s return to making the visionary and artistic films that helped to put Malaysian cinema on the global map.
His debut “Monday Morning Glory” (2005) was screened at the Berlin and Locarno Film Festivals, and “The Tiger Factory” (2010) was selected for the Cannes Film Festival.
Produced by Greenlight Pictures together with Yeo, those films were part of a group of similarly themed productions that film critics defined as the Malaysian “New Wave” of the 2000s.
This current of cinema verite focused on telling realistic stories based on Malaysia’s multiethnic culture.
Besides Woo, its leaders were the late Yasmin Ahmad, publisher and film producer Amir Muhammad, James Lee – whose film “The Beautiful Washing Machine” (2005) won another Fipresci Prize at the Bangkok International Film Festival – and Tan Chui Mui.
Tan’s latest film, “Barbarian Invasion” (2021), which tells the story of an actress’ comeback to the film world after giving birth to her first child, was produced by Woo and starred Bront and director James Lee as an actor.
“Barbarian Invasion” won the Jury Grand Prix prize at the Golden Goblet Awards in Shanghai last year and is about to have its Malaysian theatrical release, signalling a return to a cinematic tradition of bold, non-commercial films that highlight social issues with realistic, multiethnic and multilingual depictions.
That trend is also resonating with newer Malaysian filmmakers. “Prebet Sapu” (2021), the debut feature by the young director Muz Amer, tells the coming-of-age story of a Malay illegal hail driver in the capital – a story made bittersweet by the friendship he strikes with a Chinese Malaysian escort.
Surprisingly, given its staunch realism, “Prebet Sapu” was selected by Finas, the national film development corporation, to represent the country at Hollywood’s Academy Awards in 2022, a year after the agency sent a horror film, “Roh” by Emir Ezwan, to the Oscars.
Both films are currently streaming internationally on Netflix.
Intimate and personal
For Woo, “Stone Turtle” marks a return to the sort of successful features that helped Malaysian cinema to break into film festivals around the world. The film debuted in the crucial South Korean market at the prestigious Busan International Film Festival early last month.
A short while later, main female lead Asmara Abigail won Best Actress in the Southeast Asian Feature competition of the Bali Makarya Film Festival; and child actress Samara Kenzo received a Jury Special Mention for her acting at the Festival Du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal, Canada.
The film will premiere next at the Singapore International Film Festival in early December.
“I don’t really like making the same type of film twice,” said Woo, adding that his more recent genre films were attempts to attract a larger local audience.
Those films were successful, in many ways. “But I found that, in the end, the more intimate and personal films provide more satisfaction and are closer to my growth as a filmmaker,” he said.
“I want to continue making films that will make an impact on the international stage, and that will give Malaysia a bigger presence in the cinema world. I think the rest will take care of itself.”