‘Tiger Stripes’ is a coming-of-age story with a supernatural twist. — Picture via Cannes
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 — Amanda Nell Eu’s Tiger Stripes is finally getting a local release in Malaysia and will be screening at local cinema chain Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC) from October 19.
Tiger Stripes is the first Malaysian film to win the Grand Prix prize at the Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week and was the only Malaysian film screened at the festival this year.
It has picked up other accolades on the way including Special Jury Mention at the Fantasia International Film Festival and the HR Giger ‘Narcissa’ Award for best feature film at the Neuchartel International Fantastic Film Festival, a festival highly regarded in genre cinema.
The subject matter should prove interesting. It tells the story of hapless 12-year-old Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal), who has enough to deal with as she struggles with puberty but then finds herself transforming in an entirely different, and terrifying manner.
It doesn’t help that she gets no community support with her struggles and even has to contend with the likes of snake oil sellers.
Besides newcomers Zafreen, Deena Ezral and Piqa, local veteran actors Shaheizy Sam, Jun Lojong and Fatimah Abu Bakar give solid weight to a film hailed by The Guardian as “terrifically shot” and stating that the performance Eu coaxes from her young cast is “tremendous”.
Watch the trailer below:
