<h3>Pak Kuntet (the name tickles me)</h3>

When CSI ended on AXN at 10 last night, and nothing else worth watching was on, The Don and I looked to each other in question. A quick rummage through our VCD/DVD drawer turned up only one movie we havn't seen. The Indonesian horror (we thought!) flick 'KAFIR' (Satanic). (I dunno who bought it, nobody in my family particularly likes Indonesian films) Out of other better movies and a tiny curiousity of how bad the horror movie might be, we turned down the sofa into a sofa bed, brought out pillows and a comforter, dimmed the lights and sat to watch.



It turned out to be much more interesting than we thought. And it wasn't a horror flick at all. Read the review here and here in Indonesian. It was a crappy movie as far as movie standards goes but the nature of the plot - black magic, flying corpse and bomohs kept us rooted to our seats. The "Kafir" in the movie, Pak Kuntet, was a guy who had special healing powers. Everyday, he sits atop this kiln of fire, and his (ape-looking) assistant will collect his sweat. It is this sweat that possess magical qualities and he cures people either by asking them to drink his sweat or to rub it on the affected area of their body. I noe!!EEUUWW!!!! Wait till you hear this part -----> When he decided not to "cure" people anymore and instead try to attain immortality, a huge group of villagers rushed to him to lick the sweat off his body. DOUBLE EEEUUWWW!!!!!!

Out of curiosity I googled the movie this morning and guess what, it was loosely based on an actual event in Kuningan, West Java and the launch of this film was met with protests from people in the area for putting their culture in a bad light. (read more here (sorry its all in Indonesian)To watch it on the silver screen may be fun but to know that the actual thing happened in real life. I feel shivers down my spine!!!