Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly

Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly (2008)

Genres - Drama  |   Sub-Genres - Black Comedy, Satire  |   Release Date - Sep 11, 2009 (USA - Limited)  |   Run Time - 77 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Mark Deming

Filmmaker Edwin casts a darkly satirical eye on the uneasy relationship between Muslims and the Chinese in Indonesia in this episodic black comedy. Pork is a staple of the Chinese diet, but it's forbidden to Muslims, and as a blind pig becomes a recurring motif in this film, it becomes a symbol of the cultural gulf between these two sides of contemporary Indonesia. Linda (Ladya Cheryll) is a young woman of Chinese heritage whose father is a dentist who lost his sight while trying to turn his eyes round with a scalpel, while her mother converted to Christianity after gaining some small fame as a volleyball player. Linda's good friend Cahyono (Carlo Genta) has grown so tired of anti-Chinese prejudice that he's taken to telling people he's actually from Japan, while her father still dreams of becoming a Muslim so he can marry a second wife. As these characters try to make sense of their place in Indonesian society, a gay couple wrestles with unusual fantasies, a badminton player goes on a dumpling-making spree, "I Just Called to Say I Love You" becomes suddenly unavoidable, and a documentary on the 1998 Jakarta riots is in heavy rotation on state television. Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly was an official selection at the 2009 BFI London Film Festival; the short (66 minutes) feature was accompanied by a new short subject by Edwin.

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Keywords

blindness [physical], Chinese [nationality], Christianity, dentist, homosexual, injury, misfit, Muslim, volleyball