Animating Alfian Sa'at's "The Hole"

Animating Alfian Sa’at’s “The Hole”
Animation and text by Abriella Terrazas

Alfian Sa’at’s story “The Hole” from his book Malay Sketches (USA: Gaudy Boy, 2018) artfully discusses the theme of loss through the depiction of a father’s realization that his son has passed. Few words are exchanged between the father and the government official who hands him the envelope containing the information. Instead of describing sadness and pain, Alfian guides the reader through the father’s stages of shock and numbing realization in this piece of flash fiction. We find out that the son’s relationship with his father was strained and dysfunctional. They had not spoken in many years, as the son’s seemingly reckless life led him to prison where his father refused to visit. This relationship distinguishes the father’s reaction from what is to be expected when one loses a son. His lack of pain and sadness reveals a complex and heartbreaking reality. The author illustrates the father’s feelings of regret and anger through the simple yet harrowing symbol of a hole punched through the son's invalid I/C card.

I was introduced to “The Hole” through the Southeast Asian Literature and Film course taught by Professor Brian Bernards at the University of Southern California. In this class, we discussed the works of great Southeast Asian authors, directors, and artists. In each discussion of readings, films, or novels I was exposed to new perspectives and cultures. At the end of the course, students were asked to turn in a creative project that critically engaged with a film or text discussed in class. After reading “The Hole,” I knew I wanted to base my project on the story.

When reading “The Hole,” I was immediately drawn to the compelling imagery that could express such a deep, complex story in a succinct manner. Throughout the story, my mind was flooded with images, and I allowed myself to become immersed in those images. In doing so, I felt more connected to the story, as if by allowing my imagination to wander with the words written, I was more invested and better understood the emotions conveyed in the story. Because of this experience, I felt sure that I wanted to create a project that, when paired with the story, could impact an audience in a similar way. Through the dramatized, hand-drawn animation of the final paragraph in “The Hole,” I was able to bring author Alfian Sa’at’s vivid imagery to life.

In terms of my process, I first decided that focusing my piece on the final sentences of the story would best accomplish my vision because this passage in particular contained strong imagery. In the final sentence of the story, Alfian writes, “It was an opening through which I felt my body leaking drop by drop until the day I join my son on the other side.” Words such as “leaking” and “drop” made me envision the two characters’ souls becoming liquid as they depart from life. This image was also strongly guided by the illustration at the beginning of the story. With these elements in mind, I decided that I wanted to use a flip book to animate and portray this passage. This artistic choice allowed me to incorporate the elements of imagery and movement. These elements could represent the vision I had while reading the story. Now, instead of relying just on the text for imagery, the animation paired with the text guides the audience through a specific aspect of the story. Furthermore, because the animated images are moving, they play out clearly for the audience the fluidity and sequencing implied by the textual imagery.

Once I established that I wanted to illustrate the soul becoming liquid, I had to figure out how to build up to a climax. I decided that I wanted to establish context for the final image by illustrating the I/C card being handed to the parent. Secondly, I decided that the soul I would illustrate would be the son’s, as the parent, who is now holding the I/C, is experiencing the imagery playing out in front of their eyes. Even though the text has the father describe his own body leaking through the hole, he is only feeling this as a reaction to his son’s death. The flip book illustrates the son crawling out from a box on the I/C that should show his photo. This is meant to symbolize his soul departing from his identity on Earth. As the hole represents the final transition from life to death, the son is pictured running towards the hole to depict his reckless lifestyle. I chose not to depict the son running and jumping into the hole but instead falling to demonstrate how he was ultimately killed by outside forces provoked by his recklessness (running).  Each of these steps now perfectly set the scene for the final image of a soul becoming liquid and leaking into the hole as the final departure from life.

Instead of flipping through the pages as I would in real life, I decided that taking a picture of each drawing and creating a video would allow for more fluidity. It would also provide me with more creative license to embellish the scene with audio. In the beginning, I added audio of several people talking to set the scene as a normal day in a busy neighborhood. As the scene plays out, however, the noise is drowned out by a monotonous ringing sound that represents the father being consumed by his realization that his son has died. Additionally, towards the end of the animation, darker lines begin to appear and eventually close in and cover the entire sky. This is meant to represent the world closing in on the father as this heart-wrenching scene plays out in front of him. Both the audio and the dark lines further dramatize the scene and allow us to experience the story from the emotional and physical perspective of a parent. Finally, the audio of a voice reading various lines from the story is played over the animation to directly pair the sequence to specific themes in the story. With each of these elements, the story “The Hole” is translated into an animation that grounds the deeply emotional, complex experience of a father losing his son.


Malay Sketches by Alfian Sa’at is available in the US here and in Singapore here.


Abriella Terrazas is an Architecture student at The University of Southern California. She hopes to combat social injustice and climate change by promoting sustainable architectural principles. When not working in the studio, Abriella can be found memorizing lines for a theater production, painting colorful portraits, or rereading her favorite works of literature.