From Jemapoh To Manchester

20-year olds Yadi and Mafiz are friends and live in Jemapoh, a little dump on the Malaysian countryside. The slow pace on the countryside is making the boys restless and bored. Only their strong longing to get away fi lis them with joy. Yad i 's admiration for the football team Manchester United and his unabashed idolizing of the legendary player George Best makes him fantasize about Manchester. Mafiz dreams of meeting
his father in Liverpool, who deserted
him when he was very young.
One day they take the chance to get away from their everyday life; they ''borrow'' a screaming red Volvo and take off. During a punk concert they witness a shooting, slink off and real ize they have gotten the wounded singer Lili on their hands.
Despite Yadi's suspicions they take the well-behaved Lili, who tries to be helpful in every way, with them. At a visit to a restaurant Yadi rescues a young woman, Mila, who is being harassed by
an unpleasant character. She joins their travelling group. The youngsters have to make the ferry to the main land and they are in a hurry - the next one does not leave until two weeks later.
They make friends as well as wnwmies during their ride; they bribe a motorcycle cop with a Manchester United-scarf, steal a radio which they donate to a satisfied
hitch-hiker, they became. Become the subject to the violence of a crazy kidnapper, get shot at and, naturally, their car breaks down.
The film is built as a classic road movie, with a narrative structure that makes the trip a psychological one, as well as physical. From Jemapoh to Manchester isfull of cool car rides to the tones of Malaysian and western pop music by acts such as The Prodigy and The Beatles, black leather jackets, fifties nostalgia and tropical landscapes. But it also says something about Mazif mental preparations to meet his father. About Yadi's accelerating jealousy toward Mafiz and his almost fetishist worsh i p of George Best. About searching for a father figure - or maybe what waits around the next curve?
ELSA WESTERSTAD

Premiärstatus
Skandinavisk premiär: Orig. titel
Dari Jemapoh to Manchester: Medverkande
Zulkarnain Ibrahim,Indra Syahril,Azizul Akma: Producent
Halim Sabir: Manus
Hishamuddin Rais: Talat språk
Malaysian