Asian Cinema Fund

ACF Asian Cinema Fund

Asian Network of Documentary(AND) Fund

2011 Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund

LIST On Mother’s Head

Category	PUFS Fund
Project	On Mother’s Head
Director	Kusuma Widjaja PUTU
Country	Indonesia
Director's Profile	After graduating from Netherland Film Academy in 1994, Kusuma Widjaja Putu worked at a television station in Jakarta for nearly eleven years. In 2006, he returned to his birthplace in Singaraja, North Bali. He produces films from a town without a film industry or even a cinema to speak of. [Small Steps of Morning] was screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2008, and [The North Wind] was the official selection at IDFA 2010. His third film [On Mother’s Head] is currently in production and will be his first feature-length documentary.

Synopsis: Grandma Sari found a pig in the banana field. She looked for the owner but nobody claimed it. She took him home and decided to make him into a stud (Kaung). He became the most famous male pig in the village. To old to walk, she has now passed on all her chores and duties to her daughter, Ketut Norsy. Since her husband lost his permanent job, Ketut Norsy has to work even harder to support her family, which includes 5 children.
The three central characters in the story are Grandma Sari, her daughter Ketut Norsy, and her granddaughter Ketut Fitry. From their perspectives, we see the effects on the family of hard work, the loss of a father’s job and the mother’s borrowing money. For each of them the purpose of living is merely survival.

Director's Note: Most films about Bali focus on presenting the beauty of the island. The complicated bureaucracy involved in obtaining a shooting permit make a foreign film crew dependent on certain people from time to time. Only a few manage to get permits and are able to enter the kitchen, back-yard or bedroom of an ordinary Balinese, and these are the places where the big conflicts arise. As a Balinese, I can freely film them, and witness every moment.
[On Mother’s Head] focuses on Ketut Norsy as a mother of five children who uses her head to carry pig feed, stones, sand, and bricks to the temple as offerings. For Ketut Norsy, maybe living is life’s only purpose. And is this not the case? It’s a challenge for me to put this question on screen to be answered.

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