The Sleeping Dictionary
IMDB 6.6/10 (3,402 votes)
Written by	Guy Jenkin
Starring	Hugh Dancy Jessica Alba Bob Hoskins Brenda Blethyn Emily Mortimer Noah Taylor Eugene Salleh Junix Nocian
Editing by	Lesley Walker
Release date(s)	2003
Running time	109 min.
Language	English

The Sleeping Dictionary is a 2003 film by Guy Jenkin. It was filmed in Sarawak and is set during the British colonial rule in the 1930s.

  Plot

A young and naive Englishman, John Truscott (Hugh Dancy), goes to the British colony of Sarawak, Borneo to try and apply his father's work to the Iban society. There he meets his boss Henry Bullard (Bob Hoskins) and his wife Aggie Bullard (Brenda Blethyn). John tries to civilize them, building schools and providing education for the Iban people. He is met with unfamiliar local customs. Selima (Jessica Alba) becomes his "sleeping dictionary," who sleeps with him and teaches him the language and the habits of the locals.

John is sent up river where a sickness is affecting the Yakata tribe. He and Selima travel inland. John witnesses a near-by mining operation run by Europeans. He notices that the Yakata have rice - which has been given by to them by the miners and he guesses correctly that the miners have poisoned the rice in order to get rid of the Yakata. Knowing that they will exact vengence, John tells the Yakata what has happened. The Yakata wipe out the miners.

Despite their intents, the two find themselves falling into a forbidden love. John is eager to marry Selima despite the longhouse not allowing it. When John tells Henry about his plans to marry her, they lock Selima up. Selima then agrees to marry in the longhouse and they part ways. Bullard threatens to send him to trial for the death of the European miners. He makes a deal with John. John has to give up Selima, and go to Britain for a year's vacation and to meet the Bullard's daughter Cecilia. Another local British official Neville Shipperly (Noah Taylor), a boorish drunk and a man who despises the locals is jealous of John because he had planned to win Cecilia as his own.

A year later, John is seen marrying Cecilia. He still struggles to get over his past with his sleeping dictionary. With Cecilia, he decides the best thing to do is go back to Sarawak to continue his work over there. Returning to Sarawak, Cecilia notices John's desire for Selima with his constant distance from her. Cecilia demands to know more about Selima and John replies by saying that she is married to Belansai and that the couple have a baby together.

While at the lake collecting rocks for research, John sees Selima with a baby. He believes the child to be his and asks Famous to arrange a meeting with the pair. Soon back at the house, Selima walks in unaware that John is there. John begs to see his son and soon Selima walks away not before John can stop them. Here, John meets his son Manda for the first time. When Belansai hears news that John is spending time with his wife, he sneaks in to try to kill John but only manages to hurt him with a razor. The next morning, Henry reveals his past to John about his own 'sleeping dictionary', which resulted in the birth of another child: Selima. When Belansai is caught for trying to kill an officer, he is sentenced to be hanged. Selima is not happy with the fact that Belansai will be killed as he's been a good father to Manda. Not wanting to kill Belansai, a friend of his, John goes through with announcing Belansai's hanging as he had no other option. Later that night, Selima tries to break Belansai out, not knowing John is already there. When she walks over to the jail cell, she sees John breaking Belansai out and handing him a gun. As Belansai escapes, John asks Selima to meet him at the dock so they can escape on the boat. Selima tells him he won't come as they'll catch him. John turns to Selima and says "Then I'll tell them I'd rather have you than a country... or a language... or a history". They embrace as the rain is pouring behind them.

The next day, Cecilia announces she's pregnant, shocking John. Although he still has plans to be with Selima and their son, he writes a note but stops as Cecilia catches him. The couple then talk about John's love for Selima and how Cecilia wants John to be happy. Aggie is not happy that Cecilia and Henry have allowed both John and Selima to run away together due to that fact that she never left Henry's sight, fearing he'd go with his sleeping dictionary. She encourages Neville to go after them.

John searches for Selima as she's left believing that John didn't come to the place of arrangement. They reunite as Neville comes through with a gun. He tells them to cuff themselves around the bamboos and tells them of his plans to kill John, Selima and their baby. They're then rescued by the Yakata, who kills Neville.

At the end, they decide to live together and migrate with the Yakata.

  Cast

• Hugh Dancy – John Truscott
• Jessica Alba – Selima
• Bob Hoskins – Henry Bullard
• Brenda Blethyn – Aggie Bullard
• Emily Mortimer – Cecilia Bullard
• Noah Taylor – Neville Shipperly
• Eugene Salleh – Belansai

  Production notes

Guy Jenkins, the writer and director, mentioned that he created the screenplay after a back-packing trip he made to Borneo in the early 1980's and became enamoured of the concept of ngayap which was the Iban way of courtship practised in the early 1920's and '30's. He combined the story with the romanticised idea of young Britons being posted to jungle outposts and being "thrown in the deep end" when they had to learn the local language in express time. And so a human "sleeping dictionary" was allocated to each of them.

  Filming locations

All the locations for this production were found in Kuching, or within an hour's drive from the Sarawak state capital. The secondary location of the longhouse was specially constructed at great expense (RM125,000) at Batang Ai, about 15 minutes drive on the secondary road to the Hilton Batang Ai Resort (where the film cast and crew were based for 10 days).

Kuching locations included the Matang Recreation Park; Buntal fishing village and many smaller villages and country homesteads.

The local crew and cast numbered up to 600 on certain days, for a few crowd scenes.

  Historical inaccuracies

This film was set when the third British White Rajah, Charles Vyner Brooke, was on the throne in Sarawak. Sarawak was a British Protectorate at this time, not a British colony as stated in the film. Sarawak became a British Colony after the Second World War when the Third Rajah abdicated.

  Limited release of film

A few countries received a theatrical release of the movie, including Thailand, Indonesia, Canada, Japan and parts of Europe and the Americas. Elsewhere it went straight to DVD release, where it was awarded the first-time ever DVD Award (for direct-to-DVD films only) for Best Actor (Bob Hoskins). Hoskins was not the first choice, as both Michael Caine and then Tom Wilkinson had turned down the role.

Jessica Alba came straight from the success generated by her Dark Angel TV series, created and directed by James Cameron (of Titanic fame). It was her first major motion picture appearance.

Another cast member and Oscar nominee was Brenda Blethyn. Emily Mortimer went on to larger roles in more prominent movies.

  Production companies

The local Malaysian film production company for this feature was Southeast Asia Film Locations Services, whose Sri Lankan partner Chandran Rutnam had brought Steven Spielberg to Colombo to shoot Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. His Malaysian partner Edgar Ong was involved in the first major Hollywood feature made in Sarawak, Farewell to the King, in 1987. He later produced Sacred Planet for Disney/IMAX which was narrated by Robert Redford.

  External links

• The Sleeping Dictionary at the Internet Movie Database
• The Sleeping Dictionary at Rotten Tomatoes