Action and horror flicks are, probably, the two most popular genres in Malaysian cinema, with films like “Munafik” and its sequel being the first that come to mind. It is, thus, always joyful to discover directors that try to do something different within the latter genre, with Emir Ezwan's feature debut definitely falling under this category.
“Soul” screened at Udine Far East Film Festival
The story takes place inside and around a traditional Malay house in the middle of the forest, where a family of three (a mother, a boy and a girl) makes a living in the woods in an unspecified time period. The two kids, Along and Angah, spend most of their time placing traps in the forest and bringing home the animals caught, for their mother, Mak, to cook, but it is during this task that they first encounter a grotesque sign that something is going wrong. A bit later, a young girl in tatters makes her appearance as if from nowhere, and the two children decide to bring her home. Soon, however, she is revealed to be something completely different than what they thought and another grotesque event takes place. After these events, a hunter with a spear and a milky eye, and an old woman, who claims that she just passes by to pick plants, appear, while danger and the little girl's prophecy seem to lurk all over the family.
Emir Ezwan takes the usual theme of “don't talk to strangers” and pushes it to its utter limits, as this time, the strangers are a little girl, a half blind man and an old woman, people, that is, who are the “categories” most frequently receiving help from others. This “trick” provides the narrative with a sense of originality, but it is not the sole one, since the aspect that the film truly thrives is its atmosphere. Ezwan purposefully retains a sense of disorientation that begins with the unspecified time period, location and the reasons the family leaves there, and continues with the characters, whose intentions and reasons remains vague until the finale. This sense is also heightened by the blend of folklore elements (which Malaysian culture is filled with) and the sense that an allegory is hidden somewhere here, in a style that reminds much of “The Wailing”.
This sense of disorientation and mystery also benefits the most by Saifuddin Musa's cinematography, whose camera seems to stay very briefly on each character and to have captured the mystery of the forest in the best fashion. The same applies to Safwan Salleh's editing which induces the narrative with a relatively slow pace, as far away from jump cuts and jump scares as possible, that also suits the aesthetics of the movie quite nicely. The sound design on the other hand is a bit strange, and the movie occasionally seems that would definitely benefit from some more intense sounds and music, instead of just the natural ones of the forest. This however, could be justified as part of an overall effort to stray as far away from the norms of the genre as possible, which is something that Ezwan definitely achieves, at least in terms of atmosphere and aesthetics.
Mhia Farhana as Along and Harith Haziq as Angah give very convincing performances, on par with the overall aesthetics of the narrative, while the former is the protagonist of one of the most intense sequences in the film, and manages to portray it quite adequately. Farah Ahmad as Mak has her good and her bad moments, with her monologue, unfortunately, falling on the latter. June Lojong as Tok, the old lady, looks mysterious, dangerous and wise at the same time, but the one who steals the show is Nam Ron as the roaming man, whose constant emitting of tension, disorientation, and eventually, shocking realization anchor the film and lead the narrative in the best way.
“Soul” has its faults, and at times, it seems that Ezwan got somewhat confused in the confusion he wanted to create for his audience. However, his effort is original, artful and filled with good ideas that are bound to lead to something great in the future, as his command of the medium becomes even better.