Thrilled to announce that “My Plastic Mother” directed by Amar Haikal, will compete for the NEXXT Competition as an Official Selection at FEST New Directors/ New Films Festival.
This great Portuguese festival will take place between the 20th and the 28th of June, in Espinho, Portugal.
And the screening will be at the spectacular Multimeios Cultural Center
This is the film festival in Portugal that attracts the most industry professionals from around the world every year.
My Plastic Mother, also known as Anak Macan, is a film by Michael Rainheart that has been officially selected for the Hollywood Oscars following its celebrated and highly acclaimed victory at the Flickerfest International Short Film Festival in Australia, where it won the Grand Jury Prize.
My Plastic Mother has been screened at numerous prestigious international film festivals, including those that serve as qualifiers for the Hollywood Oscars.
I grew up without my mother. As a kid, I did not really consider it to be a problem until I saw the relationship my classmates had with their mothers. For example, family photo days in elementary school were always a terror; the other kids brought in photographs of their whole family, and all mine had was just a photo of me and my father. It made me feel incomplete. I would then end up crafting well-thought-out lies to my friends about my mother working overseas. I slowly became a very troublesome and hurtful kid, to the point of expulsion in the sixth grade. As I reflect, the frustration and confusion that I kept to myself were the one that led me to hurt others around me.
With this film, I want to encapsulate those years of my childhood. It is a story about longing and the desire we all have to feel complete, interpreted through the pure desire of a child. The protagonist is a naughty, harsh boy that secretly keeps a lot of pain inside – which is also a trait most male don’t get the chance to outgrow.
In 2021, as I was shooting a documentary project in the landfill of Bantar Gebang, a huge landslide happened. Burying hundreds of old public graveyards with plastic waste sent from the capital, Jakarta. The locals refer to the kids who play in the landfill as “Anak Macan” or “Tiger Boy” due to their reckless nature. But I see it as an ironic relation to the mascot of Jakarta, the Kemayoran Tiger. All the characters in this film are played by non-professional actors, they are the kids who live in Bantar Gebang. This story is theirs as much as it is mine.
Stay tuned. We’ll be announcing more and more successes for this rising star of Asian cinema very soon.
MAILUKI FILMS 