AN American distributor has picked up the rights to Malaysian horror movie, “Sumpahan Jerunei”.
House of Films, a company based in Los Angeles had been screening the movie (known as “Curse of The Totem” internationally) at the American Film Market for international buyers, which ended on November 5.
The movie, originally released in Malaysia in July, did not do well at the box office, collecting only RM1.5 million as it competed with the likes of Hollywood blockbusters like “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”.
However, the movie won several international accolades including in five categories at the Florence Film Awards including for Best Feature Film, Best Cinematography and for Best Director.
It also won Uqasha Senrose and Daiyan Trisa the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards respectively at the 8th European Cinematography Awards.
‘Sumpahan Jerunei’ was also screened at the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival in the US in May and at the Busan Film Festival in South Korea.
The story, said to be inspired by real events, tells of a group of people who goes to Sarawak for an expedition. One of them is Dr Sani — an archaeology professor — who is there to look for his wife who disappeared while studying a Jerunei totem.
But the spirit of the place soon gets to the team, and they begin experiencing hallucinations, excruciating pain and nightmares.
Directed by Jason Chong (Adiwiraku, Gemencheh Boys), the film stars Bront Palarae, Uqasha Senrose, Syafie Naswip, Tony Eusoff, Daiyan Trisha and Amerul Affendi. It is produced by Datin Wendy Wong and Datuk Nancie Foo from Produksi Seni 2020 and showcases the traditions and rituals of the Melanau tribe in Sarawak.
