Watch the teaser trailer of Laura here.
Laura Edelenyi, one of the biggest Instagram celebrities in Indonesia passed away on December 15, 2021, at the age of 21 years old. She passed away from a spinal cord injury, Laura has fought till her last breath to keep her spirit alive, even though destiny says otherwise. The story of Laura Anna Edelenyi has now officially been adapted into a big-screen movie by MD Pictures with the title Laura: A True Story of a Fighter.
Many people ask, what happened to Laura Edelenyi and what is Edelenyi Laura’s cause of death? The ultimate cause of Laura Edelenyi’s death is because of her spinal cord injury. But then, this was caused by the accident that she experienced because of her ex’s driving, Gaga Muhammad. Edelenyi Laura car accident gained the public’s attention for the justice system to act.
Ultimately, Laura’s accident raised the public’s spirit to live—especially for people her age. Forced to be wise in the lowest point of her life, Laura Edelenyi took her last breath at the young age of 21.
Press Conference of Edelenyi Laura: A True Story of a Fighter: The Opinion of Manoj Punjabi and Cast about This True Story
Jakarta, May 27, 2024—The Press Conference for Laura was held and was attended by the film’s producer, Manoj Punjabi, and the cast, as well as the immediate family of Laura Edelenyi which included her mom, and her big sister—Greta Irene.
Manoj Punjabi: “Yes, we are ready to broadcast on September 12th, 2024. Earlier, you have seen the teaser and launch poster. We are very excited and continue to be enthusiastic about this film. Because this movie is a true story that inspires us. This story is from the POV of Laura’s Edelenyi family. We also interviewed her friends, and we learned the facts. In the end, it becomes a very real film. I can imagine it already. So, wait for the broadcast day. For that, I would like to thank the cast and Laura’s family for their trust. For me, this film is truly a true story of a fighter and can be a reflection of women and family—very relatable and close to home. I hope we can learn a lot from this film and that it is entertaining. Not only is it always patronizing, but there is a very deep moral value, and it is definitely entertaining and leaves an impression.”
Amanda Rawles: ”Earlier was the first time I watched the teaser trailer, Laura. Honestly, I was really moved by the songs, the scoring, and everything else. I couldn’t hold back my emotions while watching it. But I’m delighted because all our hard work—it’s worth it—all we’ve gone through during the filming process, readings, and the preparations. I hope the audience will really enjoy our creation. I’m very excited to watch the entire film because I myself have fallen in love with Laura and the movie.”
Kevin Ardilova: “We all can’t wait to watch the movie, and are really surprised that this movie will show sooner than expected. Initially, I thought this movie would be broadcast in December or November. From the first reading with Manda and the other cast, shooting with Mas Hanung, there were many mixed feelings. We are all discussing a movie about someone passionate about their life and a fighter who has experienced many things. We felt a lot of emotions when we were making the movie, and we hope it reaches the audience.”
Greta Irene: “From the trailer, I am already very touchy. I felt like a flashback to everything that already happened. Honestly, I never expected to be at this point right now. It feels so unreal for me, even right now. So we can see the trailer and the movie will be broadcast sooner or later on her birthday. This will be the biggest gift for Laura because her memories, her spirit, and everything will be shared. Miss him too. So, we have a place to miss and see the real Laura and her struggles.”
Alim Sudio: “I was actually one of those who refused when MD offered to make this film initially. Because I felt like I only knew Laura at a glance, but I don’t know exactly what happened. I didn’t know what this was for. Then, my wife and my sister learned about Laura Edelenyi’s story. Finally, I met Irene first to see the genuine sincerity of Laura’s family. I am lucky and grateful to Irene because she witnessed Laura’s life. I felt that this movie was intended to purely dedicate itself to Laura, who is a person filled with enthusiasm and faced struggles in her life. I immediately contacted Mr. Manoj and discussed a plethora of things. There is indeed an idealism that we want that spirit to live in young people living in Indonesia. I feel I am older and wiser, on the other hand, Laura is half my age. But apparently, age is not a benchmark for someone’s values. Laura is very wise in her life. I am very grateful that Amanda played Laura so extraordinarily. Very sophisticated. I said that playing Laura well won’t be possible if you don’t give in as an actor. I hope that all these good intentions will reach friends with a sincere heart.”
Q&A (Questions & Answers) Media towards the Cast, Manoj Punjabi, and Greta Irene—Family of Laura Edelenyi
Following are the questions from the media to the cast, producer, and family of Laura Edelenyi.
Question 1:
- “For Amanda Rawles, in the film, her hair is short—was she wearing a wig, or was it cut? What is the impression of the message? Have you ever worried that no one would want to hire Amanda again in another film? So, what is Amanda’s character Laura like?”
Answer:
Amanda Rawles: “For my hair in the movie “Laura,” there were several phases. There were phases where my hair was long and phases where I had very short hair, even a bob cut. There were some phases with slightly longer hair. So there were three different short hairstyles. To maintain continuity, I used wigs because of the different phases. At first, wearing a wig felt very different and made me feel less confident. But once I was on set, I had to become Laura, so I started embodying the character. I am not worried about having short hair for future movies as I enjoy getting new roles that vary from my previous roles. When we were learning about the character in depth, the cast, especially Kevin, helped me greatly with the readings. The readings at the start were pretty intense. To get ready, I focused on watching Laura’s vlogs because Laura is very well connected to social media. There was a lot of content Laura published that could be watched on social media on Instagram and YouTube because not only did I want to learn about her experiences and journey, but I was also focusing on the technical side, like her voice, her body expressions, and her facial expressions. So, there were a lot of things I had to note. I had a lot of time to chat with Irene, too. Irene also helped us a lot while shooting. I kept asking her, “Ren, am I enough like Laura?” I wanted to make sure I resembled Laura as closely as possible.”
Question 2:
- “For Amanda Rawles, “It’s evident that Amanda’s voice closely resembles Laura’s. Was there any special treatment involved? How long did the process take to find that voice?”
- “For Manoj Punjabi, what was the main message that you hope to convey to society through the movie ‘Laura”? Additionally, since this film relates to the true story of Vina, do you think adapting viral real-life cases will become a trend in Indonesian cinema?”
Answers:
Amanda Rawles: “For Laura’s voice, honestly, it was one of the hardest things to do so far. It seems like the first few weeks I was quite stressed. Everytime I read Laura’s dialogue, I did not feel confident as it sounded like Amanda’s voice instead. Laura’s character is very iconic, especially her laugh. I felt like I hadn’t got the voice right. I don’t know why my voice started to be somewhat similar to Laura’s voice. But, perhaps what helped me the most was listening to Laura’s voice continuously. So, before shooting, I kept playing Laura’s videos and kept listening to her laugh. I tried to imitate it, and eventually, I found it.”
Manoj Punjabi: “If I get a true story, my adrenaline immediately spikes. This story came in 2021, and we’ve been working on it intensely since 2022. Initially, I was confused about which elements to take and which angle, because I didn’t want it to be like a documentary; It needed an entertainment element to it. Hence, we focused on how to communicate the story effectively. I really dislike exploiting something, that’s not my type at all. But as creators, we need interesting content. We want to build the Indonesian film industry with high-quality movies. Not all movies can reach that level of quality. If we are talking about true stories, MD has done several like Habibie & Ainun,’ and several others that have been based on true stories—KKN is trending right now because true story elements immediately catch my radar. But here, the challenge was the angle, so we discussed it with the writer and Laura’s family. I was inspired; initially, there were many title options, and it ended up being “Laura.” For me, the moral is exactly what’s in the trailer. The phrase ‘your friends are really toxic,’ we will find out who is toxic in the film. It’s very real. The film is scarier than a horror movie for me. When we watch a movie, we consider the context first. As a film, this is extremely scary, because if it actually happens, oh my god, we won’t be able to accept it. It can be really hard to accept as someone who is aged 19, 20 years old–for something like that to happen is chilling. So there are many reasons we had to make this film happen because it is really deep and it’s very scary. We don’t want this to happen to anyone. Hopefully, the audience and parents will learn from this. It should not happen to anyone, This is my mission to dedicate this to Laura. But the mission is to not follow others. From the start, we had the concept. I’m very confident, and even if we are inspired by other movies, that’s no problem. But this happens to be our original idea. Will people follow? When KKN came out the same question was asked—will people follow? They will, but not that easy. When making a true story , there might not even be an audience. So it’s not that easy. The most important thing is how the content is presented. It’s a full package story.”
Question 3:
- “For Manoj Punjabi, “Why did you choose to anonymize the names of the other cast members? Also, was this casting done through auditions or did Irene trust certain actors with the roles?”
- “For Manoj Punjabi or Greta Irene, why did you choose to recreate Irene’s Instagram post as the poster for the film?”
Answers:
Manoj Punjabi: When it came to casting, there was no doubt about Amanda Rawles, and the rest followed based on the right fit for the character. We needed the actors to closely match Laura’s family to get the feel. We decided to anonymize the people as we are presenting the story from Laura’s family’s perspective—this is a one sided story based on the facts that we researched and observed from social media. The decision to focus on Laura’s family, agreed upon with Irene and her family, and Mr. Alim, was to ensure the names were masked. The focus is on Irene, Laura, the Mother, Janos, and Petra. Let’s focus on the family, the rest is our liberty. Whether it is considered liberty, a true event, that’s just your own speculation. As for the poster, the concept was proposed by the graphics team. I remembered seeing this post, which was striking. So, this is the first poster, and there might be another one, which has to be better than this. Why is it similar? Because it’s really cool on Instagram. If you pay attention, right down to the bottle, everything matches Edelenyi Laura Instagram. Let’s just get closer. Because it’s true, this is Irene’s struggle as well as Laura’s family. I think this is the right poster.”
Greta Irene: “Honestly, when I saw this poster, I found it really good. I didn’t look at it from a graphic standpoint or anything, but this was Laura’s first post fighting for her rights. The caption “Kelas bela diri,” goes with a true story of a fighter. This was the start of Laura’s search for justice. It’s not only creative, but it signifies the start of her struggle. This is the first poster, marking the beginning of Laura’s fight.”
Manoj Punjabi: So, the tagline ‘a true story of a fighter’ was one of the options initially. Eventually, we discussed it with the family. Suddenly, I said, ‘For example, a true story of a fighter, isn’t that cool?’ without realizing it. Then others said it was good. Irene suggested, ‘Check Laura’s Instagram.’ On Laura’s Instagram, her bio says ‘Spinal cord injury fighter,’ wow, fits perfectly. Everything fell into place. Again, we are presenting this from Laura’s POV, so everything—by design—comes together.”
Question 4:
- “For Greta Irene, when the discussion for the story of Laura Edelenyi took place, were there any special requests for some parts, for example, things to not be shown?”
- “For Kevin Ardilova, How did you find your role in this film? Who did you talk to for this film?”
Answers:
Greta Irene: “The consideration from the start was, honestly, I don’t know why I got here. As a family, we lost Laura so suddenly. We were given a chance to revisit her memories, of course, we want to see a little bit of her. It would leave a long-lasting impact on us. Once, I talked to Laura and asked, ‘Lau, what if you were made into a film?’ This was right after the accident, after two weeks at home, I just asked for fun. Laura said, “Ah that’s impossible, who am I anyway?” Laura always underestimated herself. She also felt that she was weak. But, what I like about her and is seen in this movie, she might have appeared weak, but her spirit and struggle made her far stronger than many people. She was paralyzed, but she could still entertain us all. From the story, some parts had to be changed because it couldn’t be the same, especially with legal challenges. I am very thankful to MD because they were very open and made our family comfortable to share our story as well. The first time I met Mas Alim, we shared so much until we cried. In the end, we agreed on what could be included because there are sensitive parts for our family. We wish to capture the essence of her spirit—Laura, the entertainer.”
Kevin Ardilova: “It was simple—I tried to make this character as human as possible—with emotions, fear, love, and happiness. Regardless of the character, he is a human with different feelings. I tried to explore that. As to who I talked to, it’s God’s secret, but I talked to Amanda a lot. Amanda helped me a lot in working on this movie as well. Others like Mas Hanung as well. From the beginning, Amanda and I did readings together, so we talked a lot. We tried to step outside the story to see it fairly without judging anyone.”
That is the press conference teaser trailer and poster for the film Laura: A True Story of a Fighter as well as the Q&A proposed by the media crew to the cast, producers, and Laura Edelenyi’s family. Watch the film Laura which will officially air on September 12, 2024.
Also, follow MD Pictures’ social media accounts to find up-to-date news about MD films!
MD Pictures (Production House)
Instagram: @mdpictures_official
TikTok: @mdentertainmentofficial
Facebook: MD Pictures
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YouTube: MD Pictures
Laura (Movie)
Instagram: @lauramovie
