While the 26th edition of the Far East Film Fest is still underway, Academy Two, the film that triumphed there last year, making its debut in Italian cinemas, winning both the public and critics’ awards. Here’s everything you need to know about Come Fratelli – Abang and Adik.
While the 26th edition of the event is still taking place in Udine Far East Film Festwhich will end on May 2nd and about which you can read a quick correspondence from us, debuts in Italian cinemas – distributed by Academy Two and Tucker Film – the film that triumphed at the 2023 edition of this essential festival for anyone who loves oriental cinema.
In fact, at last year’s FEFF, the winner of the audience prize, the critics’ prize and the prize for best first work was As brothers – Abang and Adika film written and directed by the Malaysian newcomer Jin Ong and played by the Taiwanese actor and model Wu Kang Ren and by the Malaysian actor and singer of Chinese origins Jack Tana story of human brotherhood between two young men on the margins who don’t even share a true blood bond.
This one official plot of the film:
Without documents, without rights, without the possibility of “existing” as citizens, Abang and Adik are two of the many invisible people who eke out a living in the poor neighborhoods of Kuala Lumpur. On one side, in fact, there are them, with a dark and angular daily life, on the other side there is the capital, with its lights, its skyscrapers, its lifestyle. A metropolis where well-being, or even just pure normality, seems like the mirage of an advertising flyer to those who have carried marginalization with them since childhood. Abang and Adik, brothers by the street and perhaps even by blood, are inseparable. The same but very different. The first, born mute, works tirelessly and never stops believing that fate can reserve him some stability, the second, younger and much angrier, rejects his condition and tries to make easy money. Easy and dirty. How much time does Jia En, a fierce NGO worker, have left to free them from hiding and prevent Adik’s choice from proving fatal?
In addition to the triumphs of the Far East, there are countless awards and nominations obtained all over the world by As brothers – Abang and Adikamong which we highlight the seven nominations obtained at the Golden Horse Awards (the Oscars of the cinema of Taiwan, the nation co-producing the film with Malaysia), of which one turned into award went to Wu Kang Ren as best protagonist.
With a visually elegant style, where words are never too many, and where the photography of the Indian is fundamental Kartik Vijaymade of warm and enveloping colors, and the soundtrack of Katayama Ryotaa young musical talent of Japanese origins but active in Malaysia, Jin Ong’s film talks about contrasts and feelings with great intensity.
Here’s what the director said about his first work:
In my homeland, Malaysia, there are thousands of people who do not have identity documents. Thousands of people who, most likely, have no future. I wrote the story of Like Brothers – Abang and Adik to raise awareness about the least of Malaysia and, by extension, about the least of the world. These people struggle and suffer every day and I am convinced that, in the end, love and humanity are the only resources available to them. Because the power of love and humanity, as I try to explain in the film, can truly be infinite.
Below you can see the official Italian trailer and the poster of Come Brothers – Abang and Adik:
