By Sara Merican
EXCLUSIVE: Singapore’s Momo Film Co has boarded Indonesian filmmaker Wregas Bhanuteja‘s third feature film, Levitating (working title).
Principal photography for Levitating is slated to start in the third quarter of this year in Indonesia. The film takes place in a small suburban area where pleasure comes from being possessed by spiritual beings. It follows 20-year-old Bayu, who aspires to be the shaman for regular trance parties and later emerges as a critical figure to solve the area’s crisis in the face of an impending eviction.
Besides Momo Film Co and Bhanuteja’s Rekata Studio, Siera Tamihardja and Iman Usman will also serve as producers on Levitating.
In 2016, Wregas became the first Indonesian director to win an award at Cannes Film Festival after clinching the Discovery Prize for his short film Prenjak. Bhanuteja’s feature debut, Photocopier (2021) premiered at the Busan International Film Festival and later recorded three consecutive weeks in Netflix Top 10’s global list of most watched non-English films. The film won a record-setting 12 awards at Festival Film Indonesia, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Momo Film Co previously collaborated on Bhanuteja’s second feature, Andragogy (original title: Budi Pekerti), which had its world premiere in the Discovery program at the Toronto International Film Festival 2023 and also clinched Best Actress for Sha Ine Febriyanti and Best Supporting Actress for Prilly Latuconsina at Festival Film Indonesia.
“I have been following Wregas’ works from his short film,” said Tan Si En, Momo Film Co’s co-founder and Managing Director. “He is an extremely talented director with much to share with the world. I am excited that Momo can bring our expertise of co-production to the project.”
Bhanuteja said: “After I worked with Si En on my latest feature film Andragogy, I find that we connect on a deeper level, so discussing the story and the vision of this film comes naturally for us. I got a variety of perspectives from Si En as a person who lives outside my country, which at the end holds significance as it adds to the international audiences’ standpoint.”
Tamihardja, who is serving as one of the producers for Levitating, added, “Our work with Momo Film Co shows our aim of growing our audience internationally. We hope to bring more authentic Indonesian stories out of our home country.”
