‘Bleat!’ First Malaysian Short Film to screen at Cannes Trailer tests Morality

Cannes Film Festival 2025 will screen Malaysia’s first Short Film selection titled ‘Bleat!’, from filmmaker Ananth Subramaniam. A small teaser reflecting the film’s plot and setting with native Tamil speaking characters is released ahead of the Cannes screening. 

Director Ananth Subramaniam has a unique voice of projecting layered narratives that are razor sharp and written to mean what it portrays and beyond. The teaser less than 2 minutes capture the setting, plot and the knot that drives the main characters to leave them with a moral question and on how to fit into the mold that society built for them in the name of belief and superstitions.

The story of elderly Malaysian Tamil couple who comes to know that the male goat they have been raising for a ceremonial slaughter is pregnant, leaving them with humane morale that seeps through the rigid beliefs and the communal expectations they have been taught for centuries.  

‘Bleat!’ is produced by Malaysia based houses – Sixtymac Pictures (Choo Mun Bel) , Idio Sync (Ananth Subramaniam and Ahilan Subramaniam), DW Studios (Dominique Welinski) and Philippines’ Epicmedia Productions (Bradley Liew).

Ananth Subramaniam about the core of the film says, “There’s this unspoken rule when you grow up as a minority: as long as you behave like a goat, everything’s fine. The moment that goat shows desire, independence, or steps beyond its little patch of farmland, everything around it starts trembling. It’s a strange experience of being made to feel like a stranger in your own house.”