Crocodile Tears
Family/Child
Love/Romance
Psychology/Mystery/Suspence/Thriller
Coming of Age
Program Note
Johan lives with his mother on a crocodile farm in West Java. For his mother, Johan and the crocodiles are everything in her life, and she takes great care of them. However, this life makes Johan, now an adult, feel suffocated and intimidated. One day, Johan meets Arumi, and he starts to develop feelings of love. With Arumi coming between Johan and his mother, their relationship subtly changes and eventually turns to a disaster. This is the feature debut of director Tumpal Tampubolon, who won the Sonje Award in 2021 for his short film The Sea Calls Me. While his previous work depicted a mother’s absence through the eyes of a young boy, this film dissects the oppressive control and possessiveness masked under the guise of motherhood. A shocking conclusion awaits at the end of the gradually tightening tension. (BOO Kyunghwan)
Director
Tumpal TAMPUBOLON
Tumpal Tampubolon is a filmmaker based in Jakarta, Indonesia. He graduated from Bandung Institute of technology with a bachelor′s degree in mathematics. His first screenplay for The Last Believer (2006) won Best Short Fiction at the Jakarta International Film Festival. In 2010, he participated in the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Film Academy, and his short film The Sea Calls for Me (2021) won the Sonje Award. Crocodile Tears is his first feature film, and it was screened in the Centerpiece Program of the Toronto International Film Festival.
Greetings from the Director
Credit
Photo