Ensemble Worldwide Malaysia and PETRONAS have released the final festive film installation for the year in line with the PETRONAS festive films’ theme of 2020-2021, ‘Our Unique Family’.
Titled ‘Akka’ (meaning older sister), the animated film shows themes of embracing love and celebrating victory over the pandemic, with a message for Malaysians to light up their hearts with love. The story is a loose adaptation of the traditional Indian tale of Ramayana, highlighting the parallel experiences of Malaysians through the pandemic, and the battle of light versus the forces of darkness.
Didi Pirinyuang, Executive Creative Director of Ensemble Worldwide, said: “We realised that the younger generation is often unaware of the story of Ramayana and the reasons why we celebrate Deepavali. Bringing in elements of family love, friendship bonds and self-belief we were able to travel into a vivid fantasy world to play out these emotions while showing hints of the Ramayana in a simplified way, against the backdrop of our current reality. Darkness comes in many different forms in our lives, but we want to remind Malaysians that the light in our hearts will always help us overcome anything.”