CUAK On That! – Cuak

"I find it interesting that the official press kit of the film mentioned more than once about the production’s Malaysianness. It’s not as common a line in such promotional efforts, and I personally think it stood out, for some reason. Here is my suspicion: the film’s makers are perhaps the ones who have probably been accused of not being Malay/Malaysian enough, at least in their work, because of the fairly fluent usage of alternative languages in the past (primarily English). I wonder whether this train of thought is destined to be derailed, simply because of the complex makeup of the issue, and have previously talked about the need to challenge the conventional understanding of what is truly Malaysian at its very base. Subconsciously or otherwise, I think this film offers not only a part of life that we don’t see as much of on screen (either independently or otherwise), but it also portrays the perspective of those who have some influence in (re)defining the idea of what a Malaysian film is."

An excerpt from a preview of 'Cuak' I wrote for Thoughts on Films.