Friday 4 December 2009

My Top 10 films of the decade, to be published in Film Comment magazine

In memory of Alexis Tioseco (1981-2009), for Film Comment, this is my Top 10 Southeast Asian feature films of the decade, listed alphabetically:

Batang West Side (Lav Diaz, The Philippines, 2001)

Call if you Need Me (James Lee, Malaysia, 2009)

Demons (Pangarap ng Puso) (Mario O' Hara, The Philippines, 2000)

Eliana, Eliana (Riri Riza, Indonesia, 2002)

Mendadak Dangdut (Rudi Soedjarwo, Indonesia, 2006)

Mukhsin (Yasmin Ahmad, Malaysia, 2006)

A Poet (Puisi Tak Terkuburkan) (Garin Nugroho, Indonesia, 2000)

Shutter
(Banjong Pisanthanakun & Parkpoom Wongpoom, Thailand, 2004)

Squatterpunk
(Iskwaterpangk) (*with live musical accompaniment by Khavn and friends) (Khavn, The Philippines, 2007)

Tropical Malady (Sud Pralad) (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand, 2004)

8 comments:

irza said...

i have only watched mukhsin n shutter. other film, not yet. where can i find all these films??

Amir Muhammad said...

Most of them are available in other Southeast Asian cities. Make friends with film fans there ;-)

Opera Jawa said...

I think Nugroho's Daun Di Atas Bantal is underrated and deserves a mention.

Amir Muhammad said...

Aside from the merits of that film (which I shall not go into), do check what year it was made, and you will see that it would be disqualified :-)

yah said...

so when it's published?

Amir Muhammad said...

In the next print issue, in January.

Dren said...

Hello, I've just bought my copy of Film Comment. What confused me was why were you asked to select the top Southeast Asian films of the decade whereas all the other panelists get to pick either their top 10 films or top new filmmakers? This poll is after all conducted to select the top films/filmmakers of the decade, right?

Amir Muhammad said...

I just chose to specialise, which was an option from the start. Check out the other 'specialist' choices of Olaf Moller and others. As the editor Gavin said to me in Rotterdam (right after asking me who Yasmin Ahmad was), he appreciated that I brought people's attention to cinemas that would otherwise not be known. Not that I believe people take time to read ALL those lists, anyway ;-)