Abang Adik

Best Film and Audience Award, 2023 Udine Far East Film Festival
Best Feature Film, 2023 New York Asian Film Festival

Bound by brotherhood and sacrifice, undocumented orphans Abang and Adi will do anything for each other. In the unforgiving shadows of Malaysia, the only comforts they have are each other and the celebration of cracking boiled eggs.

Dreaming of a better life for his brother, Abang (Kang-Ren Wu) works diligently at odd jobs while living with a hearing impairment, while Adi (Malaysian pop star Jack Tan) flirts with danger for their shared survival, including smuggling other undocumented people and selling his own body. When a passionate social worker offers an opportunity to become documented at a large personal cost, Adi’s frustration boils over into unspeakable action, altering the trajectory of the brothers’ lives forever.

Framed within the undocumented crisis in Malaysia, ABANG ADIK’s silences speak volumes in the devastating performances of Wu and Tan, whose charm and chemistry humanize an often invisible community. Fresh from international festival wins, filmmaker Jin On’s searing feature debut reveals the legal, financial, and social vulnerabilities of Malaysia’s undocumented in a rugged and heart-wrenching story of the love between brothers in the midst of a cruel world.

– Jeremy Aranda