News

Maryam (Sofia Jane) appears to lead a modern existence; she owns a successful art gallery and resides in a spacious, opulent apartment. She practically has almost any kind of freedom except choosing her own mate. In a country that strictly follows Sharia law, she still needs the approval of her father, her legal guardian (“wali”), to get married. It doesn’t seem to matter that Maryam is already 50 years old, she will receive plenty of mansplaining on her protracted quest to have her wedding approved. The fact that she comes from an aristocratic family and that her father is none other than the timber tycoon Tengku Dol further burdens her with the expectation that she will marry someone of equal standing, preferably a royalty and certainly not a much younger black man from Sierra Leone.

Maryam is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam

Although we are not given the...

Dain Iskandar Said’s second feature was his most successful, premiering at Toronto in 2011, winning the Netpac award from the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, becoming only the second film in the history of Malay cinema to be submitted to the Academy and winning eight awards. Let us see what it is all about though.

The film primarily takes place in the rural Malaysian town of Bunohan, which is located close to the Thai border. Adil is a young kick-boxer who has fallen deeply into debt, with little hope of paying his creditors honestly. In desperation, Adil agrees to an illegal high-stakes death match at a boxing club on the other side of the border, but in the midst of the fight, with Adil losing badly, his best friend Muski bursts into the ring and breaks up the match, dragging Adil away. This upsets the promoters of the fight,...

What other way is there?

It isn’t clear what way is being followed, let alone the availability of alternatives in Bunohan (2012). Adil (Zahiril Adzim) is a fighter who gets in over his head in a Thai kickboxing match and has to be rescued from the fight by his friend Muski (Amerul Affendi). This gets him in trouble with gangsters (I think). These gangsters send Ilham (Faizal Hussein), a ruthless hitman, after Adil to take him down. Meanwhile, Bakar (Pekin Ibrahim) has moved back to Bunohan ostensibly to take care of his ailing father, but actually to close out a property deal concerning the land of his father and the local kickboxing club. Thus, Bakar has to deal with Adil and Ilham, his brothers, using two-bit gangster Jolok (Hushairi Husain). Oh, and then there’s Mek Yah (Tengku Azura Tengku Awang) who is like a water spirit or something.

Read more.