'New Wave' filmmakers put spotlight on Malaysian cinema

Feature film 'Stone Turtle' bags coveted award and critical interest at film festivals

Stone Turtle 2.jpeg

A still from Malaysian time-travel revenge thriller "Stone Turtle" (2022) by Kuala Lumpur-based director Woo Ming Jin. (Courtesy of Edmund Yeo) 

MARCO FERRARESE, Contributing writer

KUALA LUMPUR -- Standing on a deserted tropical beach battered by crashing waves, a woman in a blood-red dress observes a man from afar. He has just arrived on the remote Malaysian island she inhabits, and is on bended knees, inspecting fading tracks on the foreshore.

The man introduces himself as Samad, a university researcher on a mission to find and study the island's rare population of leatherback turtles, and wants to employ the woman as a guide. Zahara, who is a stateless refugee, is unsure whether to believe him -- Samad (played by Malaysian actor Bront Palarae) is an intruder in the only place that has welcomed her.

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