KUCHING, 28 NOV – Stretchanother film produced in Sarawak featuring the life and culture of the Kelabit community, one of the state’s ethnic groups, is showing in cinemas in Malaysia starting today.
Almost all of the film was shot in the highlands of Bario, near the city of Miri, with award-winning local Josh Nawan First-Time Filmmaker Showcase in London last September, as director and screenwriter.
“I wrote the script in 2010, but it took years to refine the script before we were ready to start filming,” Josh told a press conference after the media screening of Tegkang, yesterday.
According to him, the film whose title uses the Kelabit language means ‘rainbow,’ revolves around a long-hidden secret among the Kelabit community but was later uncovered by a man who ventured into the Bario mountains as a tourist.
Josh also shared that he spent a lot of time living in the Kayan longhouse as a teenager and that experience inspired him to produce the film script Stretch with the entire shoot taking 40 days.
Stretch is Josh’s first film as a director after being an assistant director for two films and a television series.
He admitted that there were many big challenges during the filming and one of them was working with a talent line-up who were acting for the first time.
“We held an acting workshop to help those who were selected and we were lucky to get talent that was so suitable to play their respective characters,” he said.
Starring Shafie Naswip (a three-time Malaysian Film Festival award winner) and up-and-coming local actress Michelle Lungan who has appeared in televised films, Hidden Movie.
Meanwhile, Executive Producer tension, Lyn Nashin does not rule out the possibility of a continuation of the film, based on the foreshadowing throughout the film everything will become clear in the next viewing.
“If people are interested and enjoy watching this film and want more, we are also ready to continue this film,” he added. – Named
