RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS was born from a specific moment in Malaysia’s recent history. In the early 2010s, the construction of a rare earth plant near a coastal town sparked widespread fear and protest over its potential radioactive effects. At the time, I shaped the film from my own memories and longings, and from the emotional intensity I found in Yukio Mishima’s Spring Snow and Runaway Horses.Looking back today, the film feels inseparable from the atmosphere of uncertainty that followed — not only that incident, but also the national trauma of MH370 and MH17. More than a political response, the film was an attempt to capture a quiet, fragile impulse: the way Malaysians, even in moments of despair, continue to search for a glimmer of hope in the darkness.