Anak Macan (My Plastic Mother) 

(dir. Amar Haikal)

By: Dave Hughes

Losing a parent is one of the most trying experiences in an individual’s life, especially when left behind is a child still desperately attempting  to figure out who they are. There is much to be said for the role familial bonds play in growing up and in development. Amar Haikal’s Indonesian short film Anak Macan  (My Plastic Mother) tackles this issue in a tragic yet refreshing way, demonstrating the significance of these bonds and how society longs for connection, all while grounded against a bleak and desolate backdrop. 

The premise of My Plastic Mother is a fairly simple, albeit tragic one. A boy named Eki wanders a garbage landfill, searching for items he can bring to school to show a connection to his mother. The stories he shares are fabrications, but they highlight the main character’s longing for inclusion. During the film’s brief runtime, there are flashes of other students showing items that signify their own maternal bonds; these moments make the boy’s motivations clear as he wanders through the landfill. He longs for the connection and acceptance of his peers, but even more so, he longs for his mother. Also, there are flashes to other normal behaviors for adolescents that show Eki playing soccer to make viewers aware that he is just a normal kid despite having experienced a profound loss. 

What is most striking about the film is the cinematography of the trash heaps. The heaps are framed to appear vast and mountainous, acting as a powerful metaphor for the scale of grief and longing. This visual choice highlights how isolating and lonely such feelings can be for an individual experiencing profound loss while trying to move forward. The decision to feature a young adolescent longing for a parent makes these mountains of waste all the more powerful. Also impactful is the way the mountains become terrifying and haunting at night; this transformation can also be analyzed as an extended metaphor for the grief and isolation that wears a more menacing cloak at nightfall. 

The film also explores the profound value assigned to material objects when anchored by emotional memories. A single discarded shoe possesses the power to resurrect a specific memory of a trip to the zoo or an intimate moment shared with a family member. This realization flickers through the mind of the protagonist as the landfill is scoured for objects capable of bridging the classroom void regarding a parental memory. 

Target Score 7.5/10: The film My Plastic Mother surprises with metaphors for grief and loss. Eki’s story of parental loss reflects a near-universal human experience. Viewing the short international narrative through the eyes of a young boy amplifies the tragedy.