Sanct Social's Episode 6 puts a Malaysian daughter in the story, and shows what her mother sees when she calls

KUALA LUMPUR: Sanct Social, a social app for family and close friends, released the sixth episode of its short film series on YouTube on Monday (Oct 12).

The film, titled "Nice to meet you.", has no spoken lines and runs for 1 minute 51 seconds. It is the first in the series with a Malaysian character.

Rivani, a Malaysian Indian woman living in Singapore, flies to Jakarta with her friend Dennis for one Saturday. She knows almost nobody there. By the end of the day she has four new people in her life, and her mother in Malaysia has seen every one of their faces.

A stranger at the table

The story takes place on Saturday, Oct 10. Keisha, the elder daughter of the family the earlier films followed, meets Rivani and Dennis at the airport. Rivani and Keisha's sister Clarissa have never met. They wave at each other, a little awkwardly, and then hold their phones together to connect.

The company said the scene reflects how first friends are added on the app: in person, by scanning each other's code. Sion said the series wanted to show that a friendship begins with two people in the same place, not with a list on a screen.

Lunch is where the group forms. Four people want four different places, so they vote in their group chat. Raka, a friend who is running late, still casts his vote from the road and sends a voice note that makes the whole table laugh. When he arrives, out of breath, he is the fifth person at the table.

The call home

At dusk, Rivani's phone rings. It is her mother in Malaysia, shown on the screen as "Amma". Rivani answers, then asks to switch to video. Her mother accepts, and five young faces crowd into the frame to wave at her. The film never shows the mother's face, only her hand moving to her chest.

"Many Malaysian families have a son or daughter across the Causeway. The weekly call home often ends with 'I'm okay' and not much else. In this film, the mother does not need to ask who her daughter is with. She can see them," Sanct Social founder Sion Abednego said in a statement.

Sion said the first five films told one family's story, and that the sixth looked at the friends who become part of that family's world.

"Rivani lands in a city where she knows two people, and by night she has a table full of friends and a mother who has met them all through one screen. That is what we want people to feel: that being far from home does not have to mean being alone," he added.

Five phones face down

The friends' final scene shows their five phones stacked face down on a wall, with the city lights behind. The film then ends with Sancty, the app's small companion, bowing and holding up a card with a QR code. The company said the code is real and opens its website when scanned from the screen.

About the app

The company said every app screen in the film is taken from the app as it is today, including the in-person friend scan, the group vote, voice notes, a sticker, a photo that moves when the phone is tilted, and a voice call that switches to video only when the other person agrees.

Sanct Social is a free download for iPhone on the Apple App Store in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, with no advertisements. It supports Bahasa Melayu, English, Bahasa Indonesia and Hindi. The Android version is not ready yet. More than a thousand people are already on the platform, and all six episodes of the series are on YouTube.

For more information and to download the app, visit https://sanct.social