MONTASE’S SHORT: THE LETTER
The Letter was produced to participate in a competition at a local film festival. The idea is simple. A father whose son leaves to work, and gradually the son forgets his father. One thing that seems commonplace today. The increasingly sophisticated communication technology is not bringing it closer, but it is alienating. During the 2016 Indonesia-Australia Festival (FSAI), the Deputy Ambassador of Australia to Indonesia, Allaster Cox, gave special appreciation to this film in his speech because it reminds him of the inner relationship between him and his father. Unfortunately, this film failed to win the title of the best film in this event.
The strength is the cast and home setting, armed with a production budget of only Rp. 1 million. Brisman H.S. is a senior actor from Yogyakarta who has often played supporting roles in feature films. Luckily, we are already on good terms with him. Two years before that, he also played in our film. To date, he has been involved in 4 of our short film productions. Another one is the “classic” house setting used for the production of this film. Luckily, this house is owned by a relative of one of our colleagues, so it was not difficult to buy it. Some of the furniture is still ancient in this house, such as tables, chairs, cupboards, and antique clocks. The appearance and everything in this house match the story of the film.
Of course, not many people know that the production of this film has many problems. The production of this film lasted only one day, from morning to evening. One big obstacle is the neighbor in front of the house; not far from this film’s location, there is a male. Even the large yard of this house is not spared from the parking of two-wheeled vehicles belonging to the residents who mourn. As a result, we had to move production several hours back. Another big obstacle is that Mr. Brisman’s son, at the same time, has a traffic accident. However, he still acts as a professional because he knows we have prepared and rented a lot of equipment for this film production since long ago. He also admits that in several scenes, he does not act but has real emotional expressions.
With all these obstacles, the film was finally produced. Take-off locations in the house only shorten the production time, even though it has been delayed for hours. The actor, as usual, did not disappoint and played superbly. Facial expressions are crucial for this film’s story because the duration of the story runs for months. Amri Oreza Yudantara Putra played as the son. However, only as a voice actor was carried away by his seniors’ play.
This nearly 10-minute film won several awards at several local festivals, and one unique won at the ILM festival (2-minute version). Unfortunately, we did not participate in many of these films at international film festivals, only a few. That was also selected in an international film festival in India.
We want to say many thanks to several people, namely Pak Brisman, Mas Amri, Mas Agung (the house owner). Hopefully, this film can inspire and remind many people of the importance of always maintaining family and brotherhood relations. There is no comfortable place but in our own homes because what we are looking for is already here. We will release this film together with FATHER’S DAY NATIONAL on November 12th. Enjoy watching!
