Every morning, while my two children eat their breakfast before school, I exercise in the living room before work, while my wife busies herself with this, that and the other. (I’m not completely without use in this scenario, I’ll add.) Watching Edwin’s early short from 2003 “A Very Slow Breakfast”, therefore, felt like some very universal truths were being shown across the decades and the globe, in this humorous and telling few minutes.
A Very Slow Breakfast is screening at Cinemasia
A teenage boy (Anggun Priambodo) scratches at his dirty hair, filling the coffee cup before him with his flakes of dandruff. His father (Yadi Timo) watches on, unwilling to comment or act, before sipping from the soiled cup. All the while, his sister (Sandra Dewi) exercises before the TV screen to loud, thumping music. Somewhere in the background, the mother (Iwuk Tamam) works back and forth.
With no dialogue, only simple acts, Edwin communicates a few ideas in what is essentially a 4-minute slice of family life. One gets the feeling this is the scenario every morning; the father now unmoved to break the routine before him. The family no longer communicates with words, only their standard routine, with each aware of their place in the cramped space. Welcome to the family.
As children get older, the space which the family inhabits is now far too small for them, shown by the slanted roof, forcing the men of the family to stoop at the table. Each has no privacy and is no longer bothered by it. Rather than words, the father offers both the children money, seemingly satisfied that they have done their part as a family.
The father is shown as a central element here, in a patriarchal society. But he is also the least active, shown with many slow-motion shots of him and the son sat at the table. The two women in the family are much more active and energetic and the only ones seemingly doing anything of value. The daughter takes the cash from her father with a kiss and a smile, while the son takes his to his room to add to his growing pot, only to laze the day away. All this communicated in a short where the end credits are as long as the film itself. Some very quick, basic, but effective filmmaking.
