Lumpur is the 7th short film released for project 15Malaysia. The film was directed by Kamal Sabran, make to look like a short documentary. The film is poetic in a sense. It’s a play on words, in this case the Malay word ‘Tanah’ and ‘Air’.

The film starts by showing clips of people of different cultures answering the question, what does ‘Tanah’ means to them. The word ‘Tanah’ translates to land or soil. Everyone has different views of what ‘tanah’ means to them. Some are good some are bad (land slides), but everyone agrees that ‘Tanah’ is important for living.

Then to the same group of people, the film maker asked what does ‘Air’ means to them. The word ‘Air’ translates to ‘water’. Everyone agrees that ‘Air’ is important to life. They start to list out all the use of water. However sometimes water could be bad, example would be floods and tsunami.

Then the film maker ask them, what does ‘Tanah Air’ means to them. The word ‘Tanah’ and ‘Air’ when use together translates to ‘Country’. So what does country means to them? Most agree that it’s their home. Your country is your soil and water. Everything comes from the soil and water, ‘Tanah Air’.

Everyone mentions that they wish for a much stable politics in their ‘Tanah Air’. Everybody gives the idea that they just want to live peacefully without any hidden agenda.

However, soil mixed with water gives you ‘mud’. The word ‘Lumpur’ translates to ‘mud’ in English. So when does ‘Tanah Air’ becomes ‘Lumpur’? It’s when its mixed with negative influences such as dirty politics, corruptions, cronyism, racism and such.

Watch this short film Lumpur, a clever play on words with ‘Tanah’ an ‘Air’.

Also watch the making of this short film.

I would like to hear your comments on this.