Talk of the town
where women are concerned. He has never trusted women and has always been betrayed by them. And he feels that his brother is setting himself up for the same fate,” explained the 35-year-old.
Pietra reveals that Mikail’s character has what psychologists call “borderline personality disorder”.
“What I’m hoping is that when people watch this, they have a better understanding of what this condition entails. Find out a little bit more about their problem, don’t cast them out or treat them like a plague,” he said.
The bachelor party
Creative director Khairil M Bahar, 33, envisioned his segment to be about a bunch of friends talking.
“I’ve always been a fan of dialogue with the camera moving constantly. I like those situations where you have a bunch of buddies talking and there are no lies between them,” said Khairil, citing American filmmaker/producer Kevin Smith ( Clerks, Mallrats, Dogma) as one of his inspirations.
Khairil’s segment talks about the seeds of doubt planted in Adam’s head at his bachelor party by his friends as they share their opinions on how much things change when you get married.
In many ways, he drew experience from his own life when filming his segment.
“I would always hang out and play pool with a friend of mine, but after he got married we stopped doing that.”
“It’s totally understandable, we both haven’t got the time to do that anymore. But that was kind of the impetus for my segment,” said Khairil.
The ex-girlfriend
Director Lim Benji’s segment is filmed in the found footage genre, where we learn that before Adam was Brenda’s fiance, he was the boyfriend of Brenda’s housemate Nurul (Ani Juliana Ibrahim).
The found footage segment shows Adam documenting a surprise date he had planned for Nurul. Through this blast from the past, we discover how Adam treated relationships in the past.
Lim said that he got the idea for his segment after having dinner with his dad.
“I was actually texting an old flame of mine while we were eating and my dad asked me who I was texting. I told him who it was and how there isn’t anything going on anymore, and he said: “She has a younger sister right? Never mind! Older sister cannot tackle, you tackle the younger sister!”
“And so the first draft of the script essentially told the story of how Adam was initially going out with Brenda’s older sister. But as I had more discussions with my writer, Priya Kulasagaran, the script evolved to Adam’s ex being Brenda’s roommate rather than sister,” said the 29-year-old director.
The couple
Cuak is Shamaine Othman’s first directing gig, and her segment is the most naturalistic in comparison with the others. The audience is brought into the couple’s personal space and we see how they function in the relationship.
“My style of writing is that I write what I know. I’ve been in relationships where everything was going fine and then one day you have a discussion or argument which throws everything off balance,” the 30-year-old director. When writing the script for her segment, Shamaine looked at life around her to find inspiration.
“I chose conversion as the topic of the fight because I was in a relationship where the guy would have to convert if he wanted to marry me,” she said “The subject of conversion is close to me because I am the product of mixed parentage so it’s very much part of my life,” added Shamaine.
Cuak opens at cinemas nationwide on Feb 14.