Am Strang

Aiman is 28 and works as a correction office or prison guard as we normally refer to them as. Then he gets transferred to the top 'nick' in the country and this is where they carry out the executions that they are so fond of doing there. Once there he meets Rahim who is charming and World wise. He is drawn to this man who has been the executioner for a long time and knows his craft.

Now as it turns out his father was executed some years before leaving him and his sister in dire straits and affecting them both forever. However, the attraction that Aiman has for Rahim and his special service is stronger than the revulsion and hence he goes on a journey of self discovery.

This is Malay but they speak mostly English but there are sub titles that you may need from time to time which are also quite good. The production values are actually really high and the acting is all top notch too. The story is a simple one but it is compelling and has enough dramatic attention to hold your attention. Recommended for World cinema fans.

a delicate theme. brilliant script. fine performances. and the most inspired manner to explore the guilt, the past, the friendship, the duty. in essence, a water drawing. touching, precise, admirable for the courage to not be prisoner of clichés. because it is one of the admirable exploration of subjects who, very easy, could be traps for many directors. and occasion of fascinating meet between Wan Hanafi Su and Firdaus Rahman.

I don't know how many films about hangmen, and only them, were made during movie history. I remind Jack Smight's TRAVELING EXECUTIONER back in 1970. But this feature from Singapore is a real hit in the face. It draws a portrait of those men, at least in this country where the capital punishment is hanging...It would be interesting to see how the hangmen in the USA proceed with the electric chair or the gas chamber... Anyway, you deal here with a powerful piece of work, accurate, astounding movie pulled by performances that I repeat hit you in the face. The struggle of a new prison guard who becomes the hangman's assistant, long time after his own father was himself executed by the same hangman. Those schemes about forgiveness, guilt or vengeance have already been told a billion times before, but this one, in this very feature, is absolutely unforeseeable. You can't expect what will eventually happen. Impossible. No clichés here. None of them. No bad guys or good ones. No cruel prison wardens or cold executioner scheme, on the contrary, everything is so human. So true. So real.

A real must see.

Strong and straight forward drama in which a young prison guard is trained by an old chief to be the next 'hangman'. Both the young guard as the old chief have their inner demons and strong difficulties in coping with the job. Being a kind of legal killer is not like another day in the office. It leaves marks. This film describes in a non-sensational way that those who actually have to execute the death penalty, die also a little bit inside with each hanging the system 'asks' them to do.

I have just watched this film on BBC 4 and really enjoyed it. It makes no judgement for or against capital punishment, the rights or wrongs of those who carry it out. It a short, un-melodramatic film which sees all sides of the argument, the executioner, the family and the perpetrator. The end was ambiguous and slightly contrived but overall it was well made and well acted. I'm glad I watched it.