14 Jul - Malaysia will once again be represented at the Locarno International Film Festival, via Dain Said's latest film, "Interchange". The film will hold its world premiere on 5th August at midnight under the Piazza Grande section, which is known as the core of the festival. The open-air screening at the Piazza Grande will feature a giant screen and the films screened under this section will be up for two awards; the Prix du Public UBS (based on audience vote) and the Variety Piazza Grande Award which is decided by a panel of film critics. Also screening under the same section as "Interchange" is the Matt Damon-starrer, "Jason Bourne" and the Gemma Arterton sci-fi zombie film, "The Girl With All The Gifts", the latter which also serves as the festival's opening film. "Interchange" stars a mix of Malaysian and Indonesian actors; Shaheizy Sam ("Polis Evo"), Nicholas Saputra ("Ada Apa Dengan Cinta"), Iedil Putra ("Terbaik Dari Langit"), Prisia Nasution ("Comic 8"), Alvin Wong ("In Between Floors") and Chew Kin Wah ("My Stupid Boss"). Some of the cast are expected to attend the festival along with director-producer Dain Said and producer Nandita Solomon of Apparat. "I am honoured, terribly excited and a bit on edge. It's like waiting for your baby to be born, and what a place to give birth to... To see your film for the first time in front of thousands of people there, in the Piazza Grande. It's a frighteningly beautiful dream!" said Dain Said when asked about his thoughts on his movie being screened at the festival. The movie follows a man named Adam, a forensics photographer who is dragged by his best friend, Detective Man, into an investigation of a series of macabre ritual murders in the city. Adam soon befriends Iva, a woman who is on a mission to rescue the souls of the people in her tribe that have been trapped inside a glass plate negative. The tribe's spirit, played by Nicholas, takes on the form of a human in order to help Iva. Produced by Malaysian independent film production company, Apparat, the film is co-produced by Indonesia's Cinesurya along with Sonneratia Capital, Seeing Eye Films and MDec (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation). There is no official release date for the film as of yet, but it is expected to be released in Malaysia later this year and perhaps in Singapore and Indonesia too.
Back in 2009, Malaysian filmmaker Ho Yuhang's "At The End of Daybreak" was the first ever Malaysian film to debut at the festival and it had won the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) prize. In 2014, Liew Seng Tat's "Lelaki Harapan Dunia" ("Men Who Save the World") also held its world premiere at the festival and was nominated under the Concorso Cineasti del Presente (Filmmakers of the Present) section. The 69th edition of the Locarno International Film Festival will run from 3 to 13 August 2016 and will see to the screening of 40 plus films from around the world.