Babi buta yang ingin terbang (Blind Pig Who Wants to Fl...

Ladya Cheryll, Pong Harjatmo, Carlo Genta, Elizabeth Maria, Joko Anwar

Filmmaker Edwin casts a darkly satirical eye on the uneasy relationship between Muslims and the Chinese in Indonesia in this episodic black comedy. Pork is a staple of the Chinese diet, but it's forbi... read more dden to Muslims, and as a blind pig becomes a recurring motif in this film, it becomes a symbol of the cultural gulf between these two sides of contemporary Indonesia. Linda (Ladya Cheryll) is a young woman of Chinese heritage whose father is a dentist who lost his sight while trying to turn his eyes round with a scalpel, while her mother converted to Christianity after gaining some small fame as a volleyball player. Linda's good friend Cahyono (Carlo Genta) has grown so tired of anti-Chinese prejudice that he's taken to telling people he's actually from Japan, while her father still dreams of becoming a Muslim so he can marry a second wife. As these characters try to make sense of their place in Indonesian society, a gay couple wrestles with unusual fantasies, a badminton player goes on a dumpling-making spree, "I Just Called to Say I Love You" becomes suddenly unavoidable, and a documentary on the 1998 Jakarta riots is in heavy rotation on state television. Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly was an official selection at the 2009 BFI London Film Festival; the short (66 minutes) feature was accompanied by a new short subject by Edwin. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi