Certainly not Edwin. Set in the s, Vengeance tells the story of Ajo Kawir, who is notorious for his love of a good brawl. But the young fighter hides a mortifying affliction β he is sexually impotent. He soon falls head over heels in love with a beautiful and formidable female fighter named Iteung, and struggles with whether he can satisfy his new beau.
Credit: Press. Winning the Golden Leopard was quite a historic moment, especially for the Indonesian film industry. Do you think this victory signals a brighter future for your native country? Of course, Indonesian films do not strictly belong to filmmakers. I feel like this victory also belongs to the ones who watch Indonesian films. I still cannot predict the answer. Because we still have a lot of work to be done. As a novel, Vengeance is relatively unusual due to its subject matter and narrative style.
Why were you interested in adapting this story? So I pitched the novel to the producing partners at Palari Films and it so happened that they were looking for potential material to adapt. I could sense how the novel was heavily influenced by that particular slice of pop culture. However, the novel retains no faculty of nostalgia whatsoever. Just the opposite: it feels relevant and I found that very riveting. Singer-songwriter Sal Priadi is making his film debut in Vengeance.
What inspired you to have him on board? I heard of Sal Priadi from pals who are into the music scene. I had no idea what his music was, so I decided to browse through his video clips. He had this energy β from his physicality and his theatricality β and I found him quite expressive. I thought that maybe someday I would cast him in one of my films. Besides, meeting fresh talents is always an exciting experience. We had coffee, then I lent him the Vengeance novel. Once he finished reading it, we had another conversation and he shared with me a pretty interesting interpretation of the novel.
On a personal level, I could feel both of us synching with each other as well. How did you make sure that your audience could understand that the film is not a run-of-the-mill sex comedy? It transpired a long time ago, but I feel like the byproduct of that machismo culture is unmissable to this day. Physical violence is still normalised, even though this present era should be an improvement to the past 20 years. That backdrop is what assured me that this film must have the capability to speak volumes to its audience.
