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Will brothers Din and Zul reunite? PUB seeks ideas for Hari Raya video’s ending

SINGAPORE — National water agency PUB is inviting the public to create an ending for its tear-jerking Hari Raya video that went viral last month.

A six-minute short film called Kinship, put out by national water agency PUB, had a message about saving water embedded within a story centred around two orphaned brothers.

A six-minute short film called Kinship, put out by national water agency PUB, had a message about saving water embedded within a story centred around two orphaned brothers.

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SINGAPORE — National water agency PUB is inviting the public to create an ending for its tear-jerking Hari Raya video that went viral last month.

The six-minute short film — titled Kinship — centred around two orphaned brothers, Din and Zul, who were inseparable at first but later parted ways.

To date, the film has attracted more than 16,000 likes and been shared nearly 10,000 times on Facebook.

Due to the overwhelming response, PUB said in a Facebook post on Monday (June 24) that it is inviting people to have their say on how they would like the brothers’ story to end.

They can do so by leaving a comment on PUB’s Facebook post, or sending an email to pub_fow [at] pub.gov.sg by June 30.

The three best stories will be selected, and their contributors will be invited to an exclusive workshop with PUB and the creative team behind the film.

Kinship, released on May 30, is based on the Malay proverb “Air dicincang tidak akan putus”, which loosely translates to, “Water doesn’t break apart when you chop it”.

The two brothers seemed inseparable at first, but grew apart when the younger one, Zul, became hostile after finding out that Din would be adopted by another family. They parted ways on the morning of Hari Raya Puasa.

The film closes when present-day Din and his son return to a hut by a reservoir where the brothers used to play and find a message that Zul carved on the hut’s wall after Din left.

However, the ending was abrupt and audiences were left wondering if Zul would appear.

There were mixed reactions on Facebook on whether or not the story should have a better ending.

Facebook user Zahra Alhabshee said in a comment: “Please make a sequel. Where is Zul? It cannot end like this.”

Another user Nor Hafiz Hassan wrote: “I love the ending and contrary to most... I hope there is no sequel. This is a beautiful message and it's very poetic. Because in life, sometimes, there is no closure.”

Many also took to Facebook to talk about what the ending should be.

User Mike Wong commented: “Chapter 2, younger brother (finds) older brother through an online post. Older brother (is) very sick. Young brother rushes to hospital. Older brother dies before seeing young brother. Continue with the same Malay proverb.”

Ms Cindy Keng, director of PUB’s 3P Network, said that the agency “did not expect such (an) overwhelming response from the public towards Kinship”.

“It is particularly heartening to see how the film… brought people together, and generating conversations about the preciousness of kinship and the water-saving message embedded in the film,” she said.

She added that the idea of engaging the public to co-create a closure for the brothers came from the strong reception. “Given how passionate people are about the film, we are very excited to see what the public will come up with,” Ms Keng said.

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PUB kinship video Hari Raya Puasa

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