Apprentice

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.

There are only a few films dealing with Hangmen. "Shadow Kill (2002) is such a film.

The film do not go though the usual cliché plots. This is entirely different.

A young correctional officer, Aiman is transferred to a top prison. Capital punishment by hanging is being conducted in that prison. He meets an executioner, Rahim, who was doing this job for more than 30 years. Aiman's father was executed by Rahim. This leads to tense drama in the movie. But, there is nothing obvious. There is a high tension, but it is subtle. There are emotions of the prisoners who are going to be hanged, their relationship with the executioner.

The only support of Aiman was his sister Suhaila. His loneliness in life is clearly depicted in the movie. It is very clear when we see the only contact in his mobile was Suhaila.

A very dark emotional drama, clean from all the cliché plots. A freezing end.

Highly recommended for those who are looking for different movies. A must watch.

#KiduMovie

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.

A Singaporean drama; A story about a Malay corrections officer who embarks on a challenging new career as apprentice to the prison hangman. This simple revenge story transforms into a film with a theme on rage, guilt and acceptance. The story is effectively told with drip-feed revelations and a mounting tension as the plot takes the character into successively grim scenarios. Thematically, it is simple, however, and the film stops short of broaching the subject of legal killings or the one pertaining to the character.

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.