Film style, production design and the politics of interracial–interfaith relationship in Yasmin Ahmad’s Chocolate (2009)

Abstract

In this article, I examine the film style of Yasmin Ahmad’s short film Chocolate (2009) by looking specifically at its production design component. Through the application of design intensity theory, the abstract function of film style theory and Viktor Shklovsky’s ostranenie (defamiliarization) concept, my examination reveals that production design through the patterning of everyday objects as props (kitchen utensils, a plastic food cover, AA batteries, a baby milk bottle and a chocolate bar) in Chocolate functions more than denoting the setting of the story and enhancing the reality effect. It also works to visualize abstract ideas about the ambivalent possibilities of interracial–interfaith relationships in contemporary Malaysia.