Semangat (Spirit)
Synopsis
Semangat was made by working closely with one Iban longhouse community from Sarawak, Malaysia with whom the story was devised and filmed. Set in the jungles of Borneo, the basis of the film explores the conflict that exists between ancient animist beliefs and modern approaches to illness. The main protagonists of the film are a real father and son, and a retired shaman from this community.
Semangat is a micro-budget hybrid docu-fiction film funded by The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, The UK Film Council/CTBF John Brabourne Award and Screen South. It has been produced under the creative guidance of award winning filmmaker, Pawel Pawlikowski (Last Resort, My Summer of Love). It has been co-produced with The National Film and Television School.
Details
- Year
- 2010
- Type of project
- Features
- Running time
- 44 mins
- Format
- HDCAM
- Director
-
Adam Gutch, Chu-Li Shewring 1st Feature
- Producer
- Pawel Pawlikowski, Dick Fontaine, Jess Search, Maxyne Franklin, Nik Powell
- Co-Producer
- Pawel Pawlikowski, Dick Fontaine, Jess Search, Maxyne Franklin, Nik Powell
- Editor
- Chu-Li Shewring
- Screenwriter
- Adam Gutch, Chu-Li Shewring
- Director of Photography
- Adam Gutch
- Sound
- Chu-Li Shewring
- Composer
- Mat Davidson
- Principal cast
- Tambi Anak Kasi, Delly Anak Tambi, Ujan Anak Paing
Production Status
Production Company
Flying Ant Films Ltd
32 Russell GdnsGolders Green
London NW11 9NL
UK
T+44 (0)777 379 3931
adam@flyingant.org.uk
National Film and Television School
Beaconsfield StudiosStation Road
Beaconsfield
Bucks HP9 1LG
UK
T+44 (0)1494 671 234
info@nfts.co.uk
Sales Company
Flying Ant Films Ltd
32 Russell GdnsGolders Green
London NW11 9NL
UK
T+44 (0)777 379 3931
adam@flyingant.org.uk
Page updates
This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.
See also
You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.
Dread
Director: Gabe Gabriel, Loren Loubser
Year: 2026
Soft-spoken transmasc driver, Toni, is used to dealing with an array of strange customers in their day-to-day work transporting locals and tourists through the economically divided City of Cape Town in their late father’s vintage Daimler. But when Claudia, a German digital nomad with blonde dreadlocks, offloads a traumatic story on a short ride across town, Toni’s car becomes dangerously possessed with Claudia’s invisible trauma demon. Inside Out Film Festival 2026 Wicked Queer: Boston's LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2026
The Things We Don't Say
Director: Ornella Mutoni
Year: 2024
A group of young adults born during or just after the 1994 genocide against Rwanda's Tutsi people gather to find the courage to break a powerful taboo. Rwanda is one of the few nations in the world providing specialist counselling for children conceived through rape, who number 10,000 across the country. Here, course leader Emilienne, a mother, therapist and genocide survivor, helps the group to imagine a future free from family secrets and societal stigma. In a circle of supportive peers, they tell their individual stories and face their struggles together, in the hope their participation will advocate for others facing similar trauma. Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2024 NY African Film Festival 2025
Welcome
Director: Maryam Hamidi
Year: 2026
A famous Black actor accepts a role in a lucrative government film, but when he learns he’s starring in a welcome video for a British Internment camp, he is confronted by the devastating cost of his political indifference.