The Only Winner from Indonesia, UMN Lecturer’s New Film “Watch It Burn” Wins The IEFTA Award in Italy

UMN Film Lecturer Makbul Mubarak won the IEFTA award through his “Watch It Burn” film project. (Photo courtesy of IEFTA)

TANGERANG – Director and UMN Film lecturer Makbul Mubarak made another achievement through his latest film project, “Watch It Burn,” at the TorinoFilmLab (TFL) Meeting Event 2023 in Torino, Italy, on November 23-25, 2023. This is Makbul’s second feature film project after “Autobiography”.

Several countries worldwide, such as France, Italy, England, China, Colombia, and Belgium, sent film projects to this event. Makbul said only 20 film projects were selected from 550 films registered at the 16th TFL Meeting Event, especially the ScriptLab program. “Watch It Burn” was the only film project selected from Indonesia.

Through this event, the film “Watch It Burn”, which is still in the script development stage, also received an IEFTA award of €3,000 or more than Rp50 million (assuming an exchange rate of Rp16,778 per euro). The IEFTA award is an Irish-based institution that specializes in supporting films from developing countries.

“This support is certainly significant in the development of the Watch It Burn film project given IEFTA’s track record in collaborating with international film project development platforms spread from Cannes, Rotterdam, Leipzig, Thessaloniki, to Middle Eastern countries, such as Palestine,” said Makbul as the director and writer of the film “Watch It Burn.”

TorinoFilmLab is a script or idea development lab that supports talent worldwide through training, development, funding and networking opportunities. Makbul said the script development at this event was divided into three sessions over seven months in Italy, including the first session in the city of Padova in April 2023, the second session in the city of Barolo in June 2023, and the third session in the city of Torino in November 2023.

The movie “Watch It Burn” describes a mysterious fire in a small town. The fire provokes mutual suspicion among its inhabitants until it becomes very tense. The story in this movie was inspired by a fire in Makbul’s hometown in Tolitoli, Central Sulawesi.

According to Makbul, the phenomenon of fire often occurs in public spaces. Makbul also revealed that the suspense film, which has been developing since February 2023, wants to explore how humans deal with uncertainty and suspicion. In addition, the movie also wants to explore the thin boundaries between right and wrong in everyday life.

“No one ever knows who set the fire, and this affects how we, the residents, see each other,” says Makbul.

Before the TFL Meeting Event 2023, the film project “Watch It Burn” was presented at the Asian Project Market at the Busan International Film Festival 2023 in South Korea. The film project received the One Cool Award – an award from Hong Kong-based film company One Cool Ltd. Makbul revealed that “Watch It Burn” is now focusing on developing the screenplay to the production structure.

By Melinda Chang | UMN News Service

English translation by Levina Chrestella Theodora

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