As Far East Film Festival (FEFF) in Udine, northern Italy, was kicking off last week, the festival’s associated distribution company, Tucker Film, was gearing up to release Malaysian drama Abang Adik on 50 screens across Italy.
Tucker Film has partnered with another Italian distributor, Academy 2, to release the film, the feature debut of Malaysian filmmaker Jin Ong, which won the top audience award and two other prizes at FEFF last year, as well as best actor for Wu Kang-ren at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards.
In an era of contracting theatrical distribution – in which a worrying proportion of specialist films end up on streaming platforms or simply disappear – the release in Italian cinemas of a small Malaysian film from a first-time director is the kind of event that gives you hope in the future of the cinema industry.
FEFF and Tucker Film co-founder Sabrina Baracetti explains that Academy 2 is promoting the film as a moving drama that reveals the gritty side of a popular tourist location, while Tucker Film is focusing more on the film’s links to the festival: “We’re pushing the fact that it’s a FEFF audience award winner, the first Malaysian film to ever win the festival’s Golden Mulberry, plus it’s a strong film from a new director with the guarantee of the festival.”
Starting out in 2009 with the release of Japanese drama Departures, Tucker Film has taken a punt on distributing a wide range of Asian films in Italian theatres over the past 15 years – recent releases include arthouse titles such as Evil Does Not Exist, Plan 75 and Return To Dust, and it has also acquired Anthony Chen’s The Breaking Ice and Jia Zhangke’s upcoming Cannes competition title Caught By The Tides…
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