Start Sales Date
Public Sales
Internet:
26 Apr 2022 onwards, 9am

SISTIC Authorised Agents & Hotline:
26 Apr 2022, 10am

Esplanade Box Office:
26 Apr 2022, 12 noon - 6pm

Duration
Approximately 1 hour 30 mins, no intermission

Language
Performed in Malay with English subtitles

Streaming Details
SISTIC Online stream will start on 26 May 2022.
Show begins at 12pm, viewable until Sun, 12 Jun 2022 11.59pm.
Log in to SISTIC Live to watch video up to 3 times only.

Rating
PG13

Director’s Statement
Abandonment and mental abuse are two pertinent themes that anchor Pulang Balik. These themes, fascinatingly written into the double bill by its respective playwrights, also occasionally crop up in my personal films. It is also important to note that the two plays were written from the perspective of two adolescent girls as protagonists, Maya and Ain, who are navigating their adulthood. I approached the two scripts by dissecting its themes and deconstructing the way we watch stage plays.

The film adaptation was never going to be a direct, multi-camera punch-in into the stage space while the protagonists performed. The film medium has the advantage of taking the audience close into the action, developing mise-en-scene that heighten moments on stage that may be missed when one watches a play from afar in your seats. To amplify the layers in the original scripts, I develop new scenes that breathe context to the protagonists’ backgrounds and mental state. The scenes also serve to make the transition between the two plays seamless for the film audience. In Pulang Balik, navigating layers in the stage space and reinterpreting these layers into the film language has been one of my challenging yet refreshing project for me.

Director’s Bio
Sanif Olek is a Singapore-based director. His filmography includes films, television programmes, strategised messages for corporate organisations and commissioned works for statutory boards and museums. He is accomplished in several television genres, especially narrative drama and documentaries. He has received regular nominations which eventually culminated into four Best Director awards and one more in writing at Mediacorp’s Pesta Perdana. His films have won international awards and received critical acclaim for their authentic Singaporean stories that study identities and highlight ironies of the human condition. His debut independent feature, Sayang Disayang, was Singapore’s official entry to the 2015 Oscars (Best Foreign Language Film). It is now streaming via Netflix in Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea. His second feature, Voluptas (2015), had its world premiere at the Singapore International Film Festival. Away from telling stories, he hits the forest trails to reinvigorate in nature.

Creative team for Mama Lekas Pulang

Aidli 'Alin' Mosbit | Playwright
‘Alin’ Mosbit graduated from Queensland University of Technology and has worked extensively with Singapore companies like The Necessary Stage, Teater Kami, Wild Rice, Cake Theatre, Toy Factory, The Theatre Practice, Teater Ekamatra and Drama Box. With Noor Effendy Ibrahim and Alfian Sa’at, Aidli published an anthology of Malay plays in the book BISIK. She has toured to Scotland, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Romania, Hong Kong and Hungary, performing made-in-Singapore theatre. A recipient of the Young Artist Award for Theatre in 2008, she is currently working in Temasek Polytechnic as the Section Head of the Arts Division while pursuing her Master of Education.

Moli Mohter | Director
Moli has taken various positions in theatre since 1993, ranging across stage management, production coordination, acting, costumes, set design, props and stage makeup. She has also written and directed shows in recent years.

She wrote and directed Constipated Again, a monologue commissioned for Esplanade’s Pentas in 2012. She also performed a monologue, La Libre Latifa, produced by Teater Ekamatra and commissioned for Esplanade’s Pesta Raya 2002, under the direction of Aidli Mosbit. La Libre Latifa was also performed in Dewan Bahasa in Kuala Lumpur as part of Teater Ekamatra’s Projek Suitcase 2003.

Elnie S Mashari | Performer
Elnie is a prolific theatre practitioner who has been a performer, production/stage manager, director and a drama trainer for the last two decades. Her stage credits include Mama Lekas Pulang, My Mom Buys Condo, Ikan Cantik, Main-Main and Minah & Monyet which toured in Kuala Lumpur.  In 2004/2005, she was one of The Necessary Stage’s actor-facilitators for a forum theatre workshop in India collaborating with the students of Kirori Mal College, Delhi and with the theatre practitioners in Banda Aceh as part of the reconstructing programme. She has toured to Shanghai for Asia Contemporary Theatre Festival, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and The Darwin Festival ’07, Australia as part of an ensemble cast of Theatre Practice’s Play Play. Her last acting credit was for Teater Ekamatra – A Clockwork Orange.  Currently Elnie is the Section Head of ITE Higher Nitec in Performance Production. She oversees technical theatre education at ITE College Central.

Creative team for Balik

Zulfadli Rashid | Playwright
Zulfadli Rashid’s notable works include Alkesah, Harap (an adaptation of Haresh Sharma’s Hope), The Chronicles of One, Zero: Kancil and Balik. His works have been produced and staged by Teater Ekamatra, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Drama Box, and Panggung Arts, at local and international venues and performing arts festivals. Zulfadli was the resident playwright and founding member of Panggung Arts and is currently an associate artist with Teater Ekamatra. He is also a founding member of the playwriting collective, Main Tulis Group.

Looking forward to the future, Zulfadli hopes to collaborate with artists across disciplines, languages, cultures, and nationalities and to continue creating art that will entertain, enlighten and inspire.

Mohd Fared Jainal | Director
Fared engages in cross-disciplinary work that delves into the realms of both visual and performing arts, with a particular interest in space, body and design. A strong advocate of physical theatre, he is constantly exploring body craft in performance. He is also studying the relationships between elements, and principles of art and the human self, asserting these links to be in symmetry and simultaneously manipulative. Fared has collaborated extensively with various theatre and art groups in Singapore as a director, performer, visual artist and set designer. He is the founding member of neontights, a theatre design collective that creates innovative stage sets and props pieces. Fared teaches at School of the Arts and is also the Artistic Director of Teater Ekamatra.

Farah Ong | Performer
Farah Ong is an independent artist based and residing in Singapore. She is an actor, performance artist, voiceover talent, children’s theatre director and educator. She makes art, sometimes in the most unconventional mediums and forms. Farah is most alive when she is performing. She finds the human connection pleasurable when teaching. She tries to understand pain when creating performances.

Currently, she is going through a period of finding joy in everything except art. Perhaps she is trying to figure out what it means to be human or preparing for a mid-life crisis. She believes that if we look at the world through the eyes of a child, magic would be found in everything. Farah is always a child at heart. 

Kenyataan Pengarah
Pengabaian dan penderaan mental adalah dua tema utama yang diberi tumpuan dalam Pulang Balik. Tema-tema ini, yang ditulis dengan menarik dalam pementasan teater berganda oleh penulis drama masing-masing, juga kadang-kala muncul dalam filem peribadi saya. Penting juga untuk diperhatikan bahawa kededua drama itu ditulis daripada perspektif dua remaja perempuan sebagai protagonis, Maya dan Ain, yang sedang melayari alam dewasa mereka. Saya mendekati kededua skrip dengan meneliti temanya dan menganalisa untuk mencari apa yang tersirar sepertimana kita menonton drama pentas.

Adaptasi filem ini tidak akan dihasilkan secara langsung dengan berbilang kamera memasuki ruang pentas sementara protagonis membuat persembahan. Wadah filem mempunyai kelebihan untuk membawa penonton lebih dekat pada babak aksi, membangunkan mise-en-scene yang boleh meningkatkan intensiti saat-saat di atas pentas yang mungkin terlepas apabila seseorang menonton drama pentas dari tempat duduk yang jauh.

Mise-en-scene adalah ungkapan yang digunakan untuk menggambarkan seluruh aspek visual yang ada pada saat menerbitkan filem atau pementasan teater seperti pencahayaan, pelakon, kostum yang digunakan dan lain-lain.
Bagi menguatkan lagi apa yang tersirat di dalam skrip asal, saya membina adegan baru yang menyuntik konteks pada latar belakang dan keadaan mental protagonis. Adegan-adegan tersebut juga berfungsi untuk membuat peralihan antara kedua-dua drama dengan lancar buat penonton filem. Dalam Pulang Balik, mengemudi apa yang tersirat dalam ruang pentas dan mentafsir ia semula ke bahasa filem merupakan salah satu projek mencabar tetapi menyegarkan buat saya.

Biografi Pengarah – Sanif Olek
Sanif Olek adalah seorang pengarah berpangkalan di Singapura. Filmografi beliau termasuk filem, program televisyen, mesej berstrategi untuk pertubuhan korporat dan karya-karya komisyen untuk lembaga berkanun dan muzium. Beliau telah mencapai kejayaan dalam pelbagai genre televisyen, terutama dalam drama naratif dan dokumentari. Beliau sering mendapat pencalonan dan kini telah merangkuli empat anugerah Pengarah Terbaik dan satu lagi anugerah dalam penulisan bagi anugerah Pesta Perdana kendalian Mediacorp. Filem-filem beliau telah memenangi anugerah antarabangsa dan menerima pujian kritikal untuk kisah-kisah asli Singapura yang mengkaji tentang identiti dan menyerlahkan ironi keadaan manusia. Filem berdikari debut beliau, Sayang Disayang, adalah kemasukan rasmi Singapura bagi anugerah Oscars 2015 (Filem Bahasa Asing Terbaik). Ia kini ditayangkan melalui saluran penstriman, Netflix, di Asia Tenggara, Jepun dan Korea. Filem kedua beliau, Voluptas (2015), mendapat tayangan perdana sedunia di Festival FIlem Antarabangsa Singapura. Selain bercerita, beliau suka menerokai jejak hutan untuk kembali cergas di alam semulajadi.

Anggota pasukan kreatif Mama Lekas Pulang

Aidli 'Alin' Mosbit | Penulis drama
‘Alin’ Mosbit berkelulusan dari Universiti Teknologi Queensland, Australia, telah banyak bekerja sama dengan syarikat seni setempat seperti The Necessary Stage, Teater Kami, Wild Rice, Cake Theatre, Toy Factory, The Theatre Practice, Teater Ekamatra dan Drama Box. Aidli telah menerbitkan satu antologi karya drama Melayu dalam buku BISIK dengan Noor Effendy Ibrahim dan Alfian Sa’at. Beliau telah menjelajahi ke Scotland, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Romania, Hong Kong dan Hungary, mempersembahkan teater jenama Singapura. Penerima Anugerah Seniman Muda bagi Teater pada 2008, beliau kini bertugas sebagai Ketua Seksyen Jabatan Seni di Politeknik Temasek sambil melanjutkan pengajian Sarjana dalam Pendidikan.

Molizah Mohd Mohter (Moli) | Pengarah
Moli telah menyandang pelbagai jawatan dalam bidang teater sejak 1993 daripada pengurusan pentas, penyelaras penerbitan, lakonan, penggayaan kostum, rekaan prop dan set serta solekan pentas. Beliau juga telah menulis dan mengarah beberapa persembahan baru-baru ini. Beliau menulis dan mengarah Constipated Again, satu monolog yang dikomisyen untuk acara Pentas Esplanade pada 2012. Beliau juga telah membuat persembahan monolog, La Libre Latifa, terbitan Teater Ekamatra dan dikomisyen untuk Pesta Raya Esplanade 2002, arahan Aidli Mosbit. La Libre Latifa juga dipersembahkan di Dewan Bahasa, Kuala Lumpur, sebagai sebahagian daripada Projek Suitcase Teater Ekamatra pada 2003.

Elnie S Mashari | Pelakon
Elnie kelulusan Sarjana Muda dalam Pengajian Teater dari Universiti Teknologi Queensland, Audtralia. Beliau adalah seorang penggiat teater prolifik yang telah menceburi hampir dua dekad, melakukan lakonan, penerbitan, pengurusan pentas, arahan dan mengajar teater.

Sebagai pelakon, beliau telah menjayakan pementasan My Name is Nadra, Ikan Cantik, Main-Main, Minah & Monyet dan Betrayed Babies. Beliau telah menjelajahi Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong dan Darwin sebagai sebahagian daripada pelakon ensemble bagi pementasan Play Play, terbitan Theatre Practice. Lakonan pementasan terakhir beliau adalah F, terbitan Panggung ARTS. Beliau kini Ketua Seksyen Higher Nitec dalam jurusan Penerbitan Persembahan di Institut Pendidikan Teknikal (ITE).

Kumpulan kreatif untuk Balik

Zulfadli Rashid | Penulis drama
Karya drama terkenal Zulfadli Rashid termasuk Alkesah, Harap (satu adaptasi daripada karya Haresh Sharma, Hope) dan The Chronicles of One and Zero: Kancil and Balik. Karya drama beliau telah diterbit dan dipentaskan oleh Teater Ekamatra, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Drama Box, dan Panggung ARTS, di tempat persembahan setempat dan antarabangsa serta festival seni persembahan.

Zulfadli pernah menjadi penulis drama residen dan anggota pengasas Panggung ARTS dan kini merupakan senima bersekutu dengan Teater Ekamatra. Beliau juga anggota pengasas kolektif penulis drama, Main Tulis Group. Memandang ke depan, Zulfadli berharap dapat bergabung dengan seniman aneka disiplin, bahasa, budaya dan kewarganegaraan dan berharap dapat mencipta seni yang menghibur, mendidik dan memberi inspirasi.

Mohd Fared Jainal | Pengarah
Fared terlibat dalam kerja lintas disiplin yang menyelidiki bidang seni visual dan seni persembahan, dengan minat pada ruang, badan dan rekaan. Penyokong kuat teater fizikal, beliau sentiasa menerokai kraf badan dalam persembahan. Beliau juga sedang mengkaji hubungan antara elemen dan prinsip seni dan diri manusia, menegaskan pautan ini berada dalam simetri dan manipulatif secara serentak. Fared telah bergabung dengan pelbagai kumpulan seni dan teater sebagai pengarah, pelakon, seniman visual dan pereka set Beliau adalah anggota pengasas neontights, satu kolektif rekaan teater yang mencipta set pementasan inovatif dan barangan prop. FAred mengajar di Sekolah Kesenian Singapura (SOTA) dan juga Pengarah Artistik Teater Ekamatra.

Farah Ong | Pelakon
Farah Ong adalah seorang seniman berdikari yang berpangkalan di Singapura. Beliau merupakan seorang pelakon, seniman persembahan, bakat suara, pengarah teater kanak-kanak dan pendidik.

Beliau menghasilkan karya seni, kadang-kala dalam bentuk dan medium yang unik, berlainan daripada kebiasaan.

Farah ‘paling bernyawa’ dan bersemangat semasa membuat persembahan. Beliau mendapati hubungan manusia sangat menyenangkan semasa mengajar. Beliau cuba memahami kesakitan ketika mencipta persembahan.

Buat masa kini, beliau sedang melalui saat di mana beliau mendapati kegembiraan dalam semua perkara kecuali seni.

Mungkin, beliau sedang menerokai apa maksudnya sifat kemanusiaan atau mempersiapkan diri untuk krisis pertengahan hidup.

Beliau percaya bahawa jika kita lihat dunia menerusi mata seorang kanak-kanak, ada magis dalam semua perkara. Farah akan sentiasa berasa dirinya bak anak kecil di dalam hati.