‘Inbetweenness’, Tanah Air and Nusantara in Dain Said’s Bunohan (2012), Interchange (2016) and Dukun (2018)

ABSTRACT

This article examines three films by Malaysian Dain Said; Bunohan: return to murder (2012), Interchange (2016) and Dukun (2018). Particular attention is paid to the use of land and water (tanah air) imagery, cinematic qualities, and the richness of the cultural practices of Nusantara from which the films arise. Dain’s films explore arguments around national identity in the areas of the dramatic and the semantic. Additionally, the cinematic style of these films denotes a struggle between transnational identities and the logics of rigid national cultural boundaries. I argue that the films bring to fore a way of thinking that sees the people of Nusantara living in the interspace and moving smoothly across the archipelago. By perceiving films as ‘a liminal site of modern society’ and reflecting on ‘inbetweenness’ as the premise for everything that drives the narratives of Bunohan, Interchange, and Dukun, I maintain that the three films represent a Malaysian interstitial future that emerges between the claims of the past and the demands of the present. These films challenge and explicitly expose the conservative notion of a Malaysian monoculture, and they highlight the complexities of associative relationships through the subjects’ fractured sense of belonging. Dain creates images of Nusantara life, characterised by elements of mise en scène with which regional populations can relate. These transnational non-state-centred representations show that the land and the water have defined societies living in the in-between region of Nusantara, and focus on features that reveal the connection between peoples rather than the cultural biases and discrimination that are so often part of national discourses in the region.

KEYWORDS:

• cinematic aesthetic
• cinematic representation
• cultural identity
• Malaysian cinema
• Nusantara

Acknowledgements

Words cannot express how grateful I am to Khoo Gaik Cheng, Thomas A. Barker, and Ches Skinner, my mentors who impacted and inspired me.

Notes

1 Dukun is loosely based on a high profile 1993 case involving the gruesome murder of a Malaysian politician who was a state councillor of the then ruling government from the Malay-centric party UMNO. A woman shaman named Mona Fandey, was convicted of the murder and dismembering the victim into 18 parts.

2 President Joko Widodo in January 2022 announced that Nusantara would be the name of Indonesia’s new capital in Kalimantan.

3 Malaya/Malaysia was undergoing major social transformation at the time, and many Malay writers and activists found work in the thriving cinema industry, infusing many of the films with their ideals, hopes, and understandings of the society they saw around them (Barnard 2009: 451).

4 As stated in a Bernama (2019) news report, Sarawak’s deputy chief minister desired walls between the Malaysian state of Sarawak and the Indonesian region of Kalimantan. According to Muhafandi Muhamad (2016), Malaysian police also advocate for border walls between the Malaysian state of Kelantan and the Thai province of Narathiwat.

5 The mobility traditions of various communities in Nusantara vary, for example, in Sumatra the Minangkabau concept of merantau (wandering or migration), is a socio-cultural practice in Indonesia, claims Salazar (2016). However, Silvey (2000) asserts that Makassar Sulawesi women value their mobility as ‘just drifting’ as opposed to ‘real merantau’.

6 According to Heidi Shamsuddin’s research on Nusantara folklore, the same stories are told in various ways across the region's different countries (Tan 2022).

7 Both of which are based on regional spiritual traditions.

8 In Nusantara folklore, the white crocodile is a well known character who appears in various tales from Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia.

9 Goh (2016) suggests that the unusual form of the film narrative may have puzzled viewers.

10 In Russian formalist theory fabula refers to the sequence of events in time. In contrast, the term sjuzhet refers to the plot, which can develop in a non-chronological manner.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mohd Erman Maharam

Mohd. Erman Maharam is the Head of Digital and Imaging Arts at the College of Creative Arts, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Puncak Alam Campus, Selangor, Malaysia. He is a cinematographer and independent film producer who enjoys reading about Southeast Asian cinema studies. Email: [email protected]