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Bunohan is a Malaysian Action Drama film Written and Directed by Dain Iskandar Said and released on 8 March, 2012. The film features actors Faizal Hussein, Zahiril Adzim and Nam Ron in leading roles. Bunohan is the second film to be directed by Dain Said and has garnered both Local and International attention; notably, the film was presented at the Toronto International Film Festival 2011 and the Los Angeles Film Festival 2012 where it was praised for it's solid, visceral storytelling and arresting photography.

Short Synopsis
Set in a border town in northeastern Malaysia of the same name, BUNOHAN tells the powerful story of three estranged brothers – Adil, Bakar and Ilham – and their ailing father, whose fates become tragically intertwined in a web of deceit and corruption. After fleeing a deathmatch in Thailand, Adil the kickboxer is on the run from Ilham the hitman. The chase brings them to Bunohan, where they crash into the shady schemes of the ambitious businessman, Bakar. The trio’s unlikely homecoming brings to light the past of Pok Eng the patriarch, whose secrets will unravel the lives of all. Each man’s unfulfilled struggle for reconciliation and forgiveness leads to the violence of loss, betrayal, corruption and murder.

Long Synopsis
BUNOHAN is the tragic story of love lost between three estranged brothers and their ailing father. The story opens in a godforsaken town in southern Thailand, just across the border from Malaysia. ‘Bunga Lalang’ or Adil is a Tomoi kickboxer who has found himself fighting for his life in an honour deathmatch. But his childhood friend Muski has other ideas – he rescues Adil and unwittingly sets in a motion a rollercoaster of events. An assassin, Ilham, is set loose on their trail as the young men flee to their home village of Bunohan (‘Murder’ in Malay). Ilham was also born in Bunohan, which he has never cared to return to, not even when his mother died. Meanwhile Adil’s elder brother, Bakar, also returns to Bunohan from the city, ostensibly to look after their ailing father Pok Eng, the Wayang Kulit (shadow puppet) master. But behind the façade of the dutiful son is an aspiring businessman, a vicious opportunist, screening the depths of corruption, greed and lust for power. As their darker selves emerge from the shadows, the trio’s arrival in Bunohan awaken bitter old memories of longing, retribution and loss, reminding them of why they left in the first place: home is where the broken heart is. Ilham gets sidetracked as he tries to find his mother’s grave, neglecting his assignment. With a posse of Thai gangsters now sent to finish Ilham’s job, Adil hides out with his mentor-coach Pok Wah and gets embroiled in efforts to save Pok Wah’s old kickboxing club. Bakar is hell-bent on wresting ownership of his father’s prime beach property – all 30 acres of it – for himself. Pok Eng, the patriarch now in his twilight years, is forlorn with regret over his sons. But he is resolute in keeping his promise to Adil’s mother that he would one day gift his property to Adil. This throws a spanner in Bakar’s nefarious works. Under pressure from a deal made with corporates in the city, Bakar becomes increasingly desperate. When Adil finds out about his father’s pledge to him, Bakar insinuates that they are not really brothers, causing Adil to go on a mission to establish the truth. Ilham’s search for his mother’s missing grave – supposedly located on burial grounds within those coveted 30 acres of land – leads him to discover that the graves had been secretly relocated by Bakar to make way for his planned project. Ilham’s Chinese friend, Jing, warns him that there is some foul play about his mother’s grave. When Ilham fails to fulfil his original task, the Thais send a new assassin, Deng, to take care of Ilham. Adil prepares for a final fight to save his mentor’s fight club, after which he wants to reclaim his father’s land. Bakar watches from afar, pulling the right strings to set his plot into motion. Whatever the outcome, much blood will be spilled.

Director's Statement
Amidst the murderous undertones of BUNOHAN is a film that is inspired by what it means to live and breathe in/at a crossroads of time and place. That’s the main reason I set the story in the ‘badlands’ of Malaysia. The modern Malaysian state has long tried to define this place by its borders. But how the communities there see themselves – borders don't mean anything." This swathe of land from the northern fringes of Terengganu, through Kelantan, and across the border to Pattani in southern Thailand is the Malay heartland that defies sovereign boundaries.

In writing the script, I drew inspiration from my childhood memories growing up in the border town of Tumpat, tapping into a rich tapestry of stories of assassins, kickboxers and smugglers told to me by my policeman father who patrolled the border. These personal histories not only formed the characters of BUNOHAN but also the psychological and philosophical tropes that glower beneath the film's saturnine disposition.

As much as the fates of the characters are intertwined, so too are the cultural and mythological elements here inextricable from its landscape. The largely rural community here live close to nature. From this symbiotic relationship arose animist beliefs that have evolved and adapted into cultural practices like the Mak Yong, Main Puteri, shadow puppetry and oral folklore like the Crocodile-Man (which I adapted for Mek Yah’s story). For me, magic is the intermediary in the human relationship with the environment. Before the written word and literacy formed the lens through which humans perceived and objectified the world, our interface with the environment relied purely on sight and sound, our experience consisting solely of the lived environment. Our gradual disconnect with nature, the erosion of the beliefs that surround this relationship and the mutually destructive consequences are the philosophical themes that underpin the film.

BUNOHAN marries all these elements in a cinematic world where the modern and traditional clash and collude. And so it is Bakar, the educated and the educator, who schemes to sell his father’s land to developers; Ilham the assassin prefers the intimacy of killing with the traditional Lawi Ayam knife rather than the cold detachment of guns; Tomoi fighters, as per tradition, dance in ceremonial blessing as a ritual of respect; the distinctly oral nature of the Kelantanese dialect used throughout bristles with nuances that evaporate upon writing; the natural sounds of the environment resonate throughout the film, coalescing with the breath of the characters. I ‘hear’ relationships between oral communities and nature in the breathing.

Placed within this mythological landscape is the psychology of a culture that takes on complexities beyond the machismo of physical violence. I was eager to explore the subtler violence that arises from the relationship between men. They cannot articulate emotions and what their actual problem is. And because they can't confront, it then catches up with them 10-20 years later.” Adil’s and Ilham’s exit and return to Bunohan is underscored by their inability to cope with personal traumas. It's an inarticulate speech of the heart.

About the Production
The idea of BUNOHAN had been germinating in Dain’s head for a long time. Originally the working title of the film was Bunga Lalang, the fighting nickname for Adil. In the course of his research, Dain met some guys in Kelantan who told him to go to place called “Bunohe” – as they say in Kelantanese. Startled with disbelief, he recounts doing double take: “’There’s a place called Bunohan (meaning murder)?’ I asked. They said ‘Yes, Kampung Bunohan.’ It was really fitting.”

As far back as 4 to 5 years ago, Dain had already approached actors for the film. “I didn't have to cast much. I knew the people that I wanted and they fit the part.” Like Faizal Hussein, who had worked with Dain in a previous project (the banned film DUKUN). “I knew I was slated for the role of the assassin for years” says Faizal. “So I was excited when I found out the movie was going to be shot. When I read the script, I felt that this would be the benchmark for all movie scripts in Malaysia.” Although Dain had a clear idea of who he wanted cast, the last lead character to be cast was Bakar, whom Dain had the “least idea in my head how he looked like.” Pekin Ibrahim was initially slated for a minor supporting role, but impressed Dain enough to get his first major role in a film. “I actually cried when I found out I got the role of Bakar,” confessed Pekin. “Bakar’s role was a real challenge to play. He was the silent killer. He was evil, but you can’t show evil.”

The fates conspired to provide Dain with the actor for the minor role of Jing, the Chinese fisherman. “I couldn’t find a Chinese actor who could do a natural Kelantanese accent, even though there are lot of good Chinese actors,” says Dain. Then on one of his recce trips, Dain found himself idly chatting with a passer-by near a shop until a light-bulb flickered on in his head. “It suddenly occurred to me that I was talking to a Chinese guy, who was fit, good-looking, and speaking Kelantanese with me.” As it turned out, the Chinese man, Jimmy Lor, had acted once - with Faizal Hussein. He also happened to be a martial arts coach. “It was a godsend,” says Dain.

Looking for funds, production company Apparat pitched to the National Film Development Corporation (FINAS), who approved a film loan for Bunohan. The bank disbursing the funds however took so long, the project was delayed for a year. Then another bank began a film financing scheme that got the project up and running. The guiding principle for assembling the production crew was chemistry. “We wanted people who wanted to work with us to tell this story,” says producer Nandita Solomon. “Also people who would add on their creative input and let the film take its shape that way.”

Two crucial personnel, editor Herman K Panca and cinematographer Charin ‘Tong’ Pengpanich had already worked before with Nandita. Panca and Dain hit it off immediately in Jakarta, while Tong had actually grown up in a similar environment as the setting for Bunohan in Thailand. “But I also appreciated that this story is so rooted in your own country,” says Tong.

“Things just clicked with Tong, because he's an artist,” says Dain. “He was a lithographer, he looks at paintings and landscapes and understands it. He decided to come on board because he loved the locations we were shooting. He also understood the kind of passions I connected with. I liked the fact he had the experience to work fast simply because we were literally battling the elements at the same time.” In the early days of the shoot, Tong shared Dain’s initial stress. Communicating to the rest of the crew was a problem. “Dain’s the only one that easily understood me, and that helped a lot to work here” says Tong. “I created a very simple look. I made it look so simple it looks as if I didn’t do anything.”

Scouting for locations, the production team had at least three, sometimes four backups, contingencies for the unpredictable temperament of both the weather and humans. A house owner who had earlier agreed to the shoot, shut the door when the crew arrived. Dain climbed the fence and banged on the window until the owner came out. Apparently he was afraid to leave the house for the shoot, because he said there was a spirit, a penunggu, who “took care of the house.”

Finding the mangrove swamps for the film’s dramatic backdrops proved easier. Dain was already very familiar with a beautiful swamp area in Terengganu and decided to take creative license to shoot in this location, near the state’s border with Kelantan. Prior to the shoot, which began in late October 2010, the actors had two months of training and rehearsals. For Zahiril Adzim, who played the kickboxer Adil, it meant bulking up and undergoing kickboxing training during the fasting month of Ramadhan. “That was hardcore,” says Zahiril. “I was wiped out everyday.”

The majority of the actors had to be coached in the Kelantanese dialect, which proved to be more difficult than expected. “Kelantanese can’t be directly translated from Malay,” says Zahiril. “You have to understand the flow, the intonation and the intention.” As meticulously planned as the shoot was, the production was held ransom to the vagaries of inclement weather. A freak rainstorm knocked them out for three days. Flooding threatened to damage the equipment. The blistering heat in the mangroves and river locations tested everyone’s resolve. The crucial ending fight scene that was tightly scheduled was plagued by night-time rain.

Tong was unperturbed by such conditions. “We agreed to be open about recreating the image. Most of the time, I’m waiting for the magic moment, like it’s almost going to rain. Most of the scenes, we had rain, but we shot it anyway, and we ended up liking it. We were prepared to shoot it anywhere, any weather.”

Zahiril was physically and emotionally spent every night. “Not only was Adil a heavy character to carry, I also had lots of fight scenes,” Zahiril explains. “Dain didn’t want a typical action movie fight. He really wanted us to hit each other, no faking it. The fight choreography was also fixed. So for days we would hit and get hit at the same spot, until we were bruised.” But injury wasn’t his most pressing concern. “I was nervous as hell when we had to swim underwater in the river. The villagers told me there were crocodiles there.” Faizal, who joined him in the river for the scene, was equally as anxious. “We could’ve been crocodile food!” Dain laughs it off. “Actually I knew all the crocodiles in that area had been killed off years ago. My biggest fear, which I didn't dare tell the actors, was not crocodiles, but pit vipers in the mangroves. I had a shot there before so I knew the risks but also what precautions to take. We had local doctors and local scouts on standby. We made a lot of noise before going into an area to shoot. But we were fortunate. Every time we moved to a new location, everyone recited some kind of mantra or prayer, from whatever faith.”

“I think it helps when you have great results,” Dain reflects. “It’s very inspiring to the actors and the crew and everyone is just pushing on, so it was really lovely.” Pekin enjoyed the shoot. “It was very easy working with the cast and crew. A lot of us knew each other before, so it was like hanging out with friends.” Dain wanted to have the editor on set throughout the shoot, in order to get a real sense of the rhythm of the story and the environment. So Panca was editing on-the-go, and by the end of the shoot, 80 per cent of the assembly cut had been completed. Along the way the Indonesian also picked some of the Kelantanese dialect and drew parallels with the way the Kelantanese and a community in Java pronounced their vowels. In post-production, colour treatment was left minimal, but Dain got very hands-on with sound design. “The story is so tied to nature, so sound becomes really important. I didn’t want it to be so high that it overtook the picture. The drama worked better for me when it was more muted.”

Throughout the production, Dain was conscious of how the film could falter into ethnic exotica. Thus he made it clear that there was to be no ethnic music. “I suggested to (composer Tan Yan Wei, (aka Yuan) to use sounds of local instruments, but I wanted to contemporarize the sound.” Sadly Yuan passed away shortly after the film was finished. “He achieved what we wanted, and more, because he devised a music soundscape.” Dain laments the tragedy, and pays tribute to Yuan. “His work is a celebration of his talent and immense gift”

BUNOHAN:The Village
BUNOHAN is named for the village in Malaysia in which the story unfolds. Kampung Bunohan is located in the northeastern state of Kelantan, close to the border of Thailand’s Narathiwat province. This border area in Kelantan has always been known as Malaysia’s “badlands”.

A history of skirmishes between locals and Thais which resulted in a massacre is one of a few folklores that trace the origins of the village’s menacing moniker. Others speculate that the bloodletting during the Japanese Occupation may have had something to do with its etymology.

Today, the village’s association with violence is more fiction than fact although its name has lent a rugged edge to its residents. There is a saying that goes something like: “Mess with someone from Kampung Bunohan, and you mess with the entire village.” The village is also home to the traditional healing ritual known as “Main Puteri”, a ceremony performed to exorcise spirits believed to be the cause of psychological illnesses.

At various times in history Kelantan has come under Siamese control and influence, and the northeastern Malaysian states including Terengganu share a distinct, common Malayan-Thai culture and language with their counterparts in south Thailand. The ancient kingdom of Langkasuka (2nd to 14th century) comprised of present-day Kelantan, Terengganu and the Pattani province in Thailand. Kelantan was under Siamese influence throughout the 1800s until the British came into power. During the Japanese occupation, control of Kelantan was passed to Thailand again until the state became part of the Malayan Federation.

TOMOI:The Martial Art
Tomoi is the Malaysian name for a Southeast Asian martial art known in Thailand as Muay Thai. The word Tomoi is derived from "dhoi muay" which is the Thai word for pugilism and fist-fighting in general. In Malaysia it is mainly practiced in the northern states of Kedah, Terengganu and especially Kelantan, which borders Thailand. Tomoi is a form of kickboxing which allows for strikes to be made using the fist, elbows, knees and foot. Distinct from conventional boxing, Tomoi practitioners consider punches to be the weakest form of attack, instead preferring elbow and knee strikes to inflict the most damage. Which is why it is sometimes referred to as the art of siku lutut which literally translates as "elbow-knee".

From its modest origins of boxers fighting in open space without boundaries and wrapping their fists in hemp rope, today's competitive Tomoi was said to be influenced by British colonists who introduced the boxing ring, gloves and modern rules. Matches are made up of five rounds, each lasting three minutes and broken with a two minute rest period. Biting, blows aimed at the groin, holding the ropes, attacking a fallen opponent, and hitting an opponent when they are turned around is illegal. During the match, traditional music is played with the gendang (drums), serunai (flute) and other instruments. The music slows down and speeds up according to the pace of the 8 fight. The winner can be decided on points by a panel of judges, or a knockout.

Tomoi was outlawed in 1990 when the state of Kelantan came under the administration of Islamists. This was mainly on account of the animist war-dance ritual which precedes the fight. In 2006 the ban was abolished and tomoi was again allowed to be practiced under the name of Muay Kelate which means "Kelantan boxing" in the local dialect. But Tomoi remains the name used by locals.

Adil aka 'Bunga Lalang'
The hard-headed and proud Adil is in his early 20’s. A Tomoi kickboxer, he went against his father’s wishes, and like most boys in that region, took up kickboxing from an early age. Bunga Lalang is his fighting ring moniker.

Adil easily becomes the best figher in his village, but is hungry for a real challenge. With the added frustration of seeking respite from his father’s constant objections, Adil leaves home, crossing the border into neighbouring Thailand where the competition is stiffer and the prizes are bigger, but so is the price for success.

Instead of the love for the sport, Adil finds himself mired in a competitive Tomoi scene rife with lust for money, greed and corruption. Fixed fights and even murder chip away at his idealism. As much as Adil’s body is battered, so to is his soul being bartered. Coming back to win the big fight in his home village after such a long time away would be an achievement beyond any cash prize. It would be a victory for his soul, symbolising the reclamation of his legacy – his home, a place he can finally come to terms with.

Ilham
Ilham is Pok Eng’s son from his first marriage to Mek Yah, before he married Mek Ani, the mother to Bakar and Adil. Ilham has never forgiven Pok Eng for how he treated his mother. He left home in anger more than 20 years ago. Now in his 40s, Ilham has hitherto never returned to Bunohan, not even when his mother died. Wild and uncontrollable, he had already started running contraband for gangsters across the border by the age of 15. At 19 he got his first contract to kill. During one of the many gang wars that afflicted the area, Ilham landed in jail. On his release, he left to work on a merchant ship and traveled the world before coming back and picking up where he left off. His time at sea changed him and Ilham soon gained a reputation as a quick, reliable and efficient assassin used by a few local warlords. Ilham has no real loyalties except to himself. Set on Bunga Lalang’s trail by a Thai boss, Ilham unwittingly embarks on a journey to the centre of his dark self. For the life of an assassin, the only way out is the way in. His is a broken life.

Bakar
Bakar is an ambitious schoolteacher trying to become a businessman. Now in his mid-30s, he finds teaching to be a dead-end job he’s determined to escape. He is adept at adapting to situations, twisting and turning them to suit his desires to get ahead in life. Bakar has often tried to get into business, but he was never quick enough nor had the right timing to take advantage of several opportunities. This time, the pressure is on to make it right. He leaves his wife and family back in the city as he figures out how to hit the big time. Bakar appears to be the archetypically filial, polite and considerate son. But behind this façade lies a ruthless and at times cruel persona, who sees people in terms of how they can be useful to him. He teams up with the unscrupulous Jolok, who has a good network in the area and across the Thai border. Together they set their nefarious plans in motion. Bakar harbours a deep-seated hatred for his father whom he feels never appreciated him, and for his brothers, whom he looks down upon as weak and sentimental.

Pok Eng
Once a revered dalang, known to be a stern disciplinarian with a weakness for the ladies, Pok Eng has almost become a shadow of himself. Frail and ailing, he lives in solitude, his sons strewn far and wide like leaves in the wind. His only company remains his wayang kulit puppets, and the neighbour’s kid Adik, who pops in occasionally for a game with the wayang puppets. As his end draws near, he reflects ruefully on his life and wonders if he could have done things differently. Although not close to his sons, he understands them well. For him, Adil is the only son he has any hope for. But is it too late for Pok Eng to redeem himself?

Pok Wah
Pok Wah is a bomoh, a shaman and a healer in the traditional arts of massage and bonesetting. He has also been a mentor and trainer for young hopefuls for many years. Pok Wah is a kind of surrogate father for boys in the area, including Adil. He has known Ilham and Adil in their teens. He owns the land nex to Pok Eng’s 30 acres, on which he runs a small Tomoi club with his partner, Awang Sonar.

Deng
Deng is a no-nonsense Thai assassin; a younger version of Ilham. Trusted by his bosses, he has a soft spot for Ilham and adheres to an assassin’s code of ethics. His dream is to visit Paris.

Mek Yah
Mek Yah was Pok Eng’s first wife and the love of his life. She is also the mother of Ilham. Proud and stubborn she demanded a divorce from Pok Eng when he took his second wife, Mek Ani. After leaving Pok Eng, she and Ilham lived in a small house by the beach, next to a cemetery. A traditional healer, she was the subject of malicious gossip by the local villagers, leading her to live a secluded life away from prying eyes. What exactly happened to her remains a mystery. Some say she died, others speculate worse.

Jolok
An opportunist, Jolok is essentially a ‘gofer’, one who serves his master whilst cultivating his own network of useful contacts that spread out like vines through the community. A chronic gambler with a penchant for posh shoes, he will do anything for an extra buck.

Muski
Muski is a year or two older than Adil. They have been friends since childhood. But Muski is also a boxer, and is torn between his friendship and the demands of his competitive career, especially as his utmost desire is to ensure the welfare of his poor family.

Jing
Jing the fisherman is an outsider. Part of the small Chinese community in this part of northeastern Malaysia, he prefers to keep his nose clean and places himself at the periphery of both communities. Self-sufficient, proud and a strong character, he was handreared by the sea, the only master he knows.

Awang
A friend and partner to Pok Wah in their kickboxing club. He is basically an honest, hardworking man who toils the land and his fish farm to feed his family, while boxing remains his passion. Like many poor families in the area, Awang borrows money to open up high-risk, environmentally unfriendly aquaculture farms.

Adik
Adik is the young son of Pok Eng’s neighbour and Pok Eng’s only friend. Unlike Pok Eng’s own sons, Adik shows a lot of interest in learning the art of shadow puppetry. In the end, Pok Eng passes on more than his art to Adik. His presence in the house constantly irks Bakar.

Writer&Director: Dain Iskandar Said
Graduating in film and photography from the University of Westminister in London in 1990, Dain has gone on to direct short films, television content (TV3 & Astro), television commercials (Malaysia, Indonesia, India and China) and documentaries. His media installations have premiered at the prestigious Biennale of Sydney art festival, the UBC Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver and commissioned for permanent display at the Burj al-Arab in Dubai. In 2006, Dain directed a feature film, Dukun, which was practically banned and never released.

Dain’s year-long Nippon Foundation Asian Public Intellectual fellowship in 2007 began the seeds of the documentary CINEMA OF TERROR which is set for production in 2011. It has received support from the Jan Vrijman Fund, Crossing Borders and Busan Asian Network of Documentary Fund. Dain was born in Kuala Lumpur and grew up in Tumpat (on the Thai border), Kampung Baru (in the heart of Kuala Lumpur), Cairo and London. He currently resides in KL, where he spends his free time writing.

Producer: Nandita Solomon
Nandita has worked on feature films, documentaries and video art installations, and oversees projects from development, scripting & production until post-production, marketing & distribution.

In 2010, Nandita was selected to participate in the European Audio Visual Entrepreneurs (EAVE) Film Finance Forum, and Film Marketing Forum in Luxembourg, and was part of the Malaysian delegation to the Hot Docs Toronto International Documentary Festival. In 2010 and 2011, she was selected to pitch at the Docedge Calcutta Documentary Pitching Forum. Apparat’s documentary in development, (UN)MAKING THE BETRAYAL is selected for the Crossing Borders program for 2011.

Nandita has an Msc. in Development Studies from SOAS, University of London where she was a Chevening scholar. She earned her BA. in anthropology from the University of Georgia, Athens, GA. USA.

Co-Producer: Tim Kwok (Convergence Entertainment)
Tim who hails from Malaysia, is a Los Angeles-based producer. His producing credits include THE MEDALLION, KING OF FIGHTERS, HYBRID and others. Tim’s recent film VAMPIRE was also recently selected to participate in the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival. He is currently in active development with film director Shekhar Kapur on the feature project THE THREE LAWRENCES.

He has also served as a advisor for the Hong Kong Asian Film Financing Forum (HAF – Hong Kong International Film Festival) and has served as film juror or on special panels for the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival. He is currently on the board of Visual Communications, the longest Asian American non-profit organization focusing on community and media in America.

Director of Photography: Charin 'Tong' Pengpanich
Thai cinematographer Tong has worked on mainstream and independent films and commercials in Bangkok for most of his career. His notable works include first assistant camera for legendary director Werner Herzog’s Rescue Dawn (USA 2007) and cinematographer for celebrated Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady (Thailand 2004), which went on to win the Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, as well as Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recal His Past Lives which won the Palm d’Or at Cannes in 2010.

Prior to Bunohan, Tong was also the DOP for Chris Chong Chan Fui’s award-winning Karaoke (Malaysia 2009), which was his first venture into a Malaysian film production. It was here that Tong met producer Nandita Solomon which led to his involvement in lensing for Bunohan. Tong grew up in Thailand near an estuary and mangroves, the main setting for BUNOHAN, and the chance to be able to film in such a location was inspiring for him.

Editor: Herman K Panca
While still a child, Panca shocked his traditional Indonesian Chinese parents when he told them he wanted to go to film school. Fortunately, an uncle didn’t think this was such a bad idea and paid for Panca’s education. It was at Jakarta’s esteemed Institut Kesenian Jakarta (Jakarta Institute for the Arts), that he first began his collaboration with auteur Edwin, editing all of the latter’s films to date.

Aside from Edwin’s films, Panca has also worked on Indonesian horrors and comedies for blockbuster directors including Nayato and Rako Priyanto. His latest commercial outing was with the Mo Brothers’ Macabre. It was this diversity of experience firmly rooted in storytelling that led Dain Said to work with Panca on Bunohan. Dain and Panca are sometimes mistaken for father and son.

Original Music: Tan Yan Wei
Like the rest of the heads of department, Yuan fell in love with Bunohan’s theme and setting, having grown up in a small East Coast fishing town himself. When composing the score for Bunohan, Yuan brought together an eclectic mix of some his favourite forms of music – traditional Southeast Asian gamelans and drums, combined with the unique Malay rebab – together with aural memories from his childhood. He managed to do this without ‘exoticizing’ the music, instead using it as soundscapes to tease out the feelings of loss, sorrow and regret that run through BUNOHAN.

Having composed the scores for several feature films, including Malay epic Puteri Gunung Ledang as well as upcoming animated feature Seefood, Yuan’s said that working with director Dain Said made him approach the scoring of BUNOHAN in a way that he had not done previously. Sadly, Yuan passed away suddenly from complications relating to an undiagnosed thyroid condition barely a week after he completed the scoring for BUNOHAN.

Zahiril Adzim - Adil
One of the hottest young actors to emerge in the Malaysian film scene, Zahiril has carefully taken on meaty acting roles from an eclectic range of mainstream and indie films, TV dramas and theatre productions.

Most Promising Actor (Festival Filem Malaysia 2009)

Film credits include: Kami the Movie, Karaoke, Gadoh, Senjakala

Faizal Hussein - Ilham
A veteran of Malaysian cinema, Faizal began acting as a child, before becoming the biggest heartthrob of the 80s, and then went on to be cast as the anti-hero/villain characters, as his career progressed. The role of Ilham was written for Faizal. After working with Faizal as his lead in the film Dukun, Dain made sure he would work with Faizal again.

Best Supporting Actor (Anugerah Skrin 2003)

Film credits include: Abuya, Dukun, KL Menjerit, Gerak Khas the Movie 2, Gila-Gila Remaja and more than 20 other films.

Pekin Ibrahim - Bakar
This is Pekin’s first major role in a feature film. He came onto the production quite late, but stepped into his character Bakar’s shoes with an unmistakable ease and grace, making the character his own right from the start.

Film credits include: Apokalips

Bront Palarae - Deng
Making his acting debut in 2000, Bront went on to play supporting roles over a decade before landing a lead role that led to him winning Best Actor in the Malaysian Film Festival and Malaysian Screen Awards in 2010. Having worked with Bront in 2006 and again in 2008, Dain wrote the role of Deng with Bront in mind, not because Bront is half Thai, but because of his confidence in Bront’s ability to hold his own against Faizal Hussein.

Best Actor (Festival Filem Malaysia 2010 & Anugerah Skrin 2010)

Film credits include: Kongsi, Belukar, Setem, Anak Halal, Dukun, Bilut, Man Laksa, Castello.

Nam Ron - Pok Wah
Pak Wah : NAMRON Accomplished and highly respected in the Malaysian indie scene, Namron is a theatre writer, director and actor, as well as a director and actor for narrative, short and experimental films. A firm believer that art can make a change, Namron is a founder of the Rumah Anak Theatre collective that pushes the boundaries of theatre and politics in Malaysia. He is also an avid supporter of younger artists and filmmakers.

Film credits include: A Year Without Summer, Gadoh, Gubra, Dukun, Paloh

Wan Hanafi Su - Pok Eng
An award-winning stage actor, Wan Hanafi Su crosses over to the silver screen when the occasion calls. He was last seen in the KRU epic, Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa. As an artist from Terengganu, living just south of the Kelantan border, Wan Hanafi is familiar with the themes addressed in Bunohan. When Dain first told him about the film and the character of Pok Eng, Wan Hanafi said, “Dain, I know this film”.

Film credits include: Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa, Susuk

Tengku Azura - Mek Yah
Azura is a Malaysian supermodel. This is her first role in a feature film. Through an ironic coincidence, Azura’s ancestors came from the very village where much of Bunohan was shot. Aside from the language coaches provided by the production, Azura rehearsed her lines and her dialect accent with her mother, who remembered how her parents and grandparents spoke.