Malaysian-Indonesian Crime Thriller ‘Silent Village’ Takes Cues From Historic Murder Case at JAFF Market

variety.com:

Naman Ramachandran Malaysian director Ho Yuhang (“Sanctuary”) and producer Lorna Tee (“Viet and Nam”) are presenting their crime thriller project “The Silent Village” (Aman/Damai) at the inaugural JAFF Market in Yogyakarta (Jogja), bringing a politically charged narrative inspired by one of Indonesia’s most notorious criminal cases.

Ho and Tee previously worked together on “Mrs K.” The film follows a homicide detective investigating a murder in a tranquil village, where the discovery of a female body in a sugarcane field leads to connections with an unsolved human trafficking case from five years earlier.

Set against the backdrop of mounting political pressure during an election season, the story draws parallels between local authority figures and historical patterns of power abuse in Southeast Asia. “If the peaceful village where the shaman lived and killed is a mirror of the nation, the story has naturally found a piercing metaphor at its core,” says Ho, referring to the 1997 case that inspired the project, where an Indonesian shaman was convicted of multiple murders over a decade-long period.

The project, developed under Malaysia’s Paperheart banner, brings in Indonesian screenwriter Prima Rusdi (“Yuni”) to collaborate on the script. “We aim to look into the situation in Southeast Asia, outside of the urban centres, where leaders who are meant to protect and provide for the community, are often doing the opposite,” says Tee, addressing the film’s thematic focus.