KADO HARI JADI - PRESS KIT

houseofwaves productions

Apartemen Permata Senayan No. 308, Jl. Palmerah Selatan

20 – 21 A, Jakarta Selatan 10270T: +6221 5364018, +62857 10313956 – F: +6221 5364018 – E: houseofwaves@yahoo.com

Kado Hari Jadi (The Anniversary Gift)Press Kit

houseofwaves productions

Apartemen Permata Senayan No. 308, Jl. Palmerah Selatan

20 – 21 A, Jakarta Selatan 10270T: +6221 5364018, +62857 10313956 – F: +6221 5364018 – E: houseofwaves@yahoo.com

Synopsis

A young man wakes up chained to metal chair in a room painted a sickening shade of pink andilluminated by a single blinding block of neon lights placed at his right. A razorblade hangs on astring before him, and sharp pink pencils are aimed at his left eye and stomach. He does notknow where he is or why he is there. Periodically, a beautiful young woman dressed in floralsummer dress enters the room and performs cruel and calculated acts of seemingly senselesstorture. Who is she? Why is she doing this? What has he done to deserve this? And mostimportantly, will he survive?

Press ReleaseHouseofWaves Productions Debuts First Full Length Feature Film

JAKARTA, June 20, 2008: HouseofWaves Productions, an up and coming innovativeindependent film collective, will be screening its first feature length movie titled

The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi)

for its World Premiere at Kinoki Coffee Shop and ScreeningHouse in Yogyakarta on July 4, with a series of other showings also scheduled for Bandung andJakarta throughout July.

The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi)

, a raw, barebones, suspense-packed, experimentalthriller/horror flick geared to keeping audiences on the edge of their seats, is also the feature filmdirectorial debut of short filmmaker Paul F. Agusta, whose mini-movie presentations, such as

Fever

and

Lies that Bind,

have been shown at art houses and cultural centers in Indonesia, while

houseofwaves productions

Apartemen Permata Senayan No. 308, Jl. Palmerah Selatan

20 – 21 A, Jakarta Selatan 10270T: +6221 5364018, +62857 10313956 – F: +6221 5364018 – E: houseofwaves@yahoo.com

his

RTM 03.26

was also selected for showing at the Rotterdam Film Festival in the Netherlandsin 2006.

The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi)

is also scheduled to screen at Q Film Festival in Jakartafrom August 7-16 this year, and is expected to be shown at a number of international filmfestivals over the next few months.The director of

The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi)

, Paul Agusta, who is well known for hisprovocative, if not radical views on filmmaking, has taken this movie as an opportunity tocontinue his experimental exploration of how to bend, twist and rip apart the traditionalparadigms of filmmaking entrenched in Indonesian cinematic productions in an attempt to provethat “it is not money that makes good movies, but good stories”.Paul says that he strongly believes that legendary filmmaker and poet Jean Cocteau was rightwhen he said: "Film will only became an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil andpaper."With

The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi),

Paul was intent on breaking all the set-in-stonemovie making rules he could to produce a credible cinematic work as creatively and as skillfullyas he could within as short a span of time possible (10 days of shooting) with a smaller budgetthan most local filmmakers spend on catering alone.“I chose to challenge myself and the talented young members of HouseofWaves Productionsfilm collective with the filming of a brilliant horror-thriller scenario written by gifted short-storywriter/novelist Dalih Sembiring from an idea I came up with in a conversation a couple of yearsor so ago. We all endeavored to do this so that we could prove to ourselves that we couldactually make a feature film and not just daydream about it,” Paul explained.According to Paul,

The Anniversary Gift (Kado Hari Jadi)

is a story of love, loss, pain, sacrificeand revenge; a mystery that unfolds into tragedy.