DAY 10: SATURDAY APRIL 8 2006

Detik Terakhir (The Last Second) concluded CinemAsia 2006 at a sold-out Rialto last night. The movie is a hard-hitting, no frills look at one girl's descent into heroin addiction, and it is a melodrama. The director of the film, Nanang Istiabudi, was there to answer audience questions during the Q&A after the screening. When it was put to him by an audience member that the film seemed quite clichéd in it's depiction of addiction and the consequences thereof, he pointed out that, while for Western tastes that may be so given that we're all a little jaded concerning these issues, in Indonesia this was an outrageously controversial film. The drugs problem there is huge, and the message of the movie comes through loud and clear – don't do it. The screenplay was adapted by the author Albertine Endah from her own book Jangan Beri Aku Narkoba (Don't Give me Drugs).
Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country, and it was the educational value of this film that got it through the usual state censorship relatively intact. The surrounding controversy was already going strong during filming, to the extent that the Muslim Defense Front or FPI (Front Pembela Islam) threatened to burn down theaters showing the film. The film's producer Shanker R.S. asked them to first see the entire film for themselves rather than judge it on the basis of the press furore, and organized a private screening to that end. The FPI representatives, having seen the film, recognized the value and clarity of its message and withdrew the threats.

CinemAsia closed on a full house – a great note on which to end the festival. All the post-screening ballots had been collected and counted, and at a festival dinner at sponsor restaurant Oceania, it was announced that the winner of the audience poll was Butterfly, which obviously obliged all those present to drink a lot of champagne in honor of guest Josie Ho, and the party continued at Jimmy Woo's into the early hours ...

We've had a blast this year, we hope you enjoyed the festival as much as we did! See you all again in 2008.

Read the earlier daily reports!