Elementary school student Amek suffers from a cleft lip, but secretly hopes to become a jockey. People hang bottles filled with their dreams on hilltop tree in the village, but Amek doesn’t bother. With his father out of reach in Malaysia earning for the family, Amek’s mother painstakingly raises him and his older sister, Minun, on her own. As the star pupilin her school and the winner of a recent competition, Minun is adored by all of her teachers. Meanwhile, exams loom. In Indonesia, all students must take a national placement test that will determine whether they can move on to the next grade, and in recent years Amek’s school has scored miserably. All the teachers are working extra hard to raise the scores. [The Beetle Soldiers] is based on the fable of a little boy who prayed to save his mother and became a ground beetle. It is a beautiful portrayal of a family enduring hardship but continuing to love one another, and of a boy who cultivates his dreams. (KIM Byeongcheol)