IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO USHER IN CHANGE

AMPONG Bras Basah in the Malay language movie La Luna might be several thousand miles away from Soorajmukhi in the interiors of North India in the Hindi film Laapataa Ladies, but the two quaint fictional villages share quite a lot in common even as both the films have themselves been among the 85 vying in the Best International Feature category at the Oscars.

- NAMRATA JOSHI

La Luna, a Singapore-Malaysia co-production, Singapore's entry to the Oscars this year, has also played at the Tokyo International Film Festival, Jakarta Film Week and Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival in Indonesia and is available on Netflix in Southeast Asia.

Like Laapataa Ladies, La Luna is populated with a bunch of goofy, oddball characters. The bitter pill of messaging in the film comes sugar-coated with an irreverent, playful tone and earthy humour as it earnestly underscores woman power and female solidarity.

Things start off promisingly. Even as the posters warning "God is Watching" are strewn across the devout village, warning its residents against any possible deviance, Yazid (Wafiy Ilhan), a quiet and timid young man, with an artistic bent of mind seems to be doing exactly that.