Awards and festivals

Film description

At the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur, Sugiman, an illegal worker from Indonesia, is facing additional hardships. His teenage son befriends Adi, an impulsive boy running shady errands for his father, an agent employing illegal immigrants. On top of that, Sugiman's sister runs away from the home she was working in as a maid, and wants to return to Indonesia. Since she cannot cross the border legally, she hides in a cheap motel and waits for a secret boat trip home. In a room next to hers, a Filipino working for the local mob is tortured after he sends his boss' money to his mother, who was in dire financial situation. Meanwhile, two police officers are patrolling the neighborhood. The older detective lives off of bribes from the owners of shops and small businesses, something his younger partner, fresh out of police academy, is not particularly fond of. The conflict starts building up, and the law doesn't adhere to the reality ruled by chaos and a macabre nursery rhyme.

Nam Ron comments on today's most important global social phenomenon – economic migration and the way the authorities try to control it, at the same time enriching themselves on the illegal foreign workers. The director creates a multilayered narration, draws a clear picture of each of the characters, and presents mutually exclusive motivations, which are the basis of the conflict. All of it turns "Crossroads: One, Two, Jaga" into a nuanced, brave, piercing portrait of the social situation not only in Malaysia, but also in other parts of the world, facing an inevitable global processes of the redistribution of wealth and privilege.

Maja Korbecka