THE horror film Possession: Possession has successfully captivated the people of South Korea. The film by director Razka Robby Ertanto was featured at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) 2024. BIFAN is an annual international film festival that focuses on fantasy, thriller, horror, and mystery genre films.
The film was screened at Studio 5 CGV Sopoong, Bucheon, South Korea, Sunday (7/6). The enthusiasm of the South Korean people for the film, which is an adaptation of a French film with the same title released in 1981, was extraordinary. This was evident from the seats in Studio 5 which were almost full.
“Earlier, I watched the whole thing. I watched it with them and the fun thing was that they stayed from the beginning to the end. What was also fun was that during the screening, some were surprised when a devil appeared and they were really focused on watching it,” said Robby when met at CGV Sopoong.
Seeing the incredible enthusiasm from the South Korean audience, especially since this is his first horror film, Robby admitted to being proud. He is also increasingly challenged to produce new films that are no less good.
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“I really want to (make a new film), I really want to challenge myself, whatever the genre, because for us, as filmmakers, we want to continue to explore, we want to continue to learn from something we have never done before,” he said.
Presenting a pocong in the film, in the Q&A session there were many questions from the audience regarding the typical Indonesian ghost. Some even asked regarding the types of pocong in Indonesia and what differentiates the pocong in Possession: Kerasukan from pocong in other films.
When answering the question, Robby even had time to demonstrate what a pocong looks like in most Indonesian films, which was greeted with laughter from the audience. Before he then explained what differentiates the pocong in his film from other films.
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“Earlier, someone asked what the difference is with other Indonesian pocong films, well I told you that the appearance (of the pocong) in Possession: Possessed is different. Here, the pocong is rotated, upside down. Usually, the pocong’s head is on top, but here we put the head on the bottom,” said Robby.
When asked regarding the success of his film in being able to appear at BIFAN 2024, Robby said he also might not believe that he was one of three Indonesian films that had the opportunity to appear.
Two other Indonesian Films that also appeared are Grave Torture and Night of the Dead (directed by Sidharta Tata).
“I didn’t really expect it because when we were making this film, we were just making it. We continued to apply (to BIFAN) and I know very well that many films applied to BIFAN. Then we were suddenly told that the film passed the selection and was shown in BIFAN, I really didn’t expect much and I’m very happy for sure,” explained Robby.
The film Possession: Kerasukan was screened in the Adrenaline Ride program at BIFAN 2024. This is a program that screens new horror films and maps the landscape of world horror cinema. (Z-1)
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