Huminodun made out of love, hard work
Huminodun is a movie that was made out of love and hard work, one that is set to showcase the iconic story of the Sabahan goddess to the big screen, said its associate director and producer, Jo Luping.
KOTA KINABALU: Huminodun is a movie that was made out of love and hard work, one that is set to showcase the iconic story of the Sabahan goddess to the big screen, said its associate director and producer, Jo Luping.
Relying on a RM300,000 budget and home grown cast and crew, the movie is expected to woo its audience when it premieres on December 3 (Sunday) at MBO, Imago Mall.
On Thursday, members of the media were invited to a special screening of the movie, whereby they had the opportunity to interview Jo and her husband Aaron Cowan, who is also the director and writer for the movie.
“The shooting started about a year ago and it had taken place in various villages across the state, namely Kg Inobong, Penampang; Kg Piasau, Kota Belud and Mari-Mari Cultural Village,” Jo said, adding that it took them two years to complete the movie.
When asked whether the movie had stayed true to the original story of Huminodun, Jo said that they had consulted with four different cultural advisors, who included Dr Benedict Topin from the Kadazan Dusun Cultural Association (KDCA) and Jo’s father Tan Sri Herman Luping.
At the end, Jo and her team decided to go for the version told by Benedict, who is the cultural advisor for KDCA.
“There are about 40 million versions to the story so we tried to distil one that we felt was true,” Aaron said.
Commenting on the selection of Kadazan as the spoken language for the film, Jo said that she wanted to use the movie as a platform to work on other indigenous languages, not just Kadazan.
Jo further reiterated that the movie was not done haphazardly as a lot of thought had been given to every aspect of the movie, from the script, costume, music, language etc.
“We did a lot of research on the different costumes from various sources. Since this was a story that is owned by all the Kadazan communities around Sabah, we did not want to stick with just one particular area.
“For instance, since Kinoingan and Sumundu (the two characters from the story) were gods, it gave us a little bit more of artistic licence with their costumes.
“We did a lot of consultation for this movie. That is why it took a while to complete it,” Jo said.
Elaborating on the visual aspect of the movie, Aaron said that a great deal of the movie was shot with the aid of a green screen as the some of the locations that had to be portrayed in the movie required certain specifications.
Aaron further disclosed that his team had been discussing with several distributors who had shown interest in distributing the movie, citing a distributor from China as an example.
Jo explained that the movie would also be presented at various film festivals, such as the one in Canada.
“We want to target communities that have a lot of indigenous communities and then the plan is to bring it back to Malaysia to screen it commercially, nationwide,” Jo said, adding that there was no exact date for the release of the movie.
Jo clarified that Huminodun is a pilot project that is aimed at developing a crew base for Sabahan filmmakers.
“We could have completed the visual effects work faster if we were to shift it to other countries or even to Peninsular Malaysia but we said that we really wanted to build a platform here, so we waited to find some people,” Jo said, adding that all the post-production work was done in Sabah.
Meanwhile, the actress who played the title character in the movie, Alexandra Alexander, 21, said that she was pleased to be given the opportunity to be the lead actress.
“This is my first movie. I have never acted in school before but I have worked on screenplays and I directed before,” said Alexandra, who hails from Kota Marudu.
She was crowned as the Unduk Ngadau for Kota Marudu in 2016, during which she auditioned for the role, together with the other Unduk Ngadaus from the other districts.
To prepare herself for the character, Alexandra went back to her home-town as her grandmother was the one who used to tell her stories about Huminodun.
“Before this, the only thing I knew about Huminodun was that she was the one who sacrificed herself,” she said, adding that she had also conducted various researches to study the character.
“As an Unduk Ngadau, I feel very close to Huminodun because if it was not for her, we would not have Kaamatan. I feel honoured to play the character,” she added.
The hardest part for Alexandra was to learn the Kadazan language. Fortunately for her, the movie had helped her brush up her ability to speak in her native language.
“It would be a shame to just let the Kadazan language die out. If I can be a part of the effort to preserve the language, I would jump on it and that was what I did,” she said.
The hour-long movie portrays the story of Ponompuan, the daughter of gods Kinoingan and Sumundu, who in the end sacrificed herself amid a famine so the people would have food. She was later known as Huminodun.
The legend is the basis of the annual two-day Kaamatan or Harvest Festival in the state.
The film was produced by localbased Siung Film Productions and as mentioned, was directed by Aaron, who was involved in Hollywood top movies, including The Lord of the Rings, Avatar and Man of Steel.
Huminodun was supported by the State Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry, and the Kadazandusun Cultural Association’s Women’s Council and Unduk Ngadau (Harvest Queen) committee.