i remember talking about love vs religion in my last post.OK.no use hiding anymore. i watched SEPET. TWICE last week. and still swimming in its plot and emotion ever since.
So,heres how i feel about Sepet: its the [b]MOST Enchanting[/b] ive seen in a very long time. It its director has successfully put on screen many things a lot of us often think about but and not say out loud. It is not only a long-awaited breakthrough for the Malsyain Film Industry, but also in the mindsets of the the rakyat.
i picked up the lasted issue of What's Up Wanita? at college this morning. and was especially delighted to see that the cover story was on Pn Yasmin Ahmad a.k.a. director and writer of Sepet. This women has truly broken the remaining 'great wall' that seemed to yet separated us from each other in the proudly claimed 'open-minded' Malaysia.
No doubt i love my country and all that is in it. But,until now, many other things have taken that first place in our hearts that should have always been [b][i] LOVE [/i][/b]. Yes, the word highly praised and spoken highly off in 1 Corinthians 13. It is often said but undone.It is often misused in many circumstanses for the profit of selfish desire. huhhh!
I just visited Pn.Yasmin's personal blog.Its truly truly enspiring and encouraging. Its controvercial, and not what any other melayu would agree in. But i love it. So heres some stuff that i found interesting:
Love On Trail
There were, if my memory serves me, 12 people in that viewing theatre.
Somewhere in the middle of "Sepet", a panel member who was nodding off at the back, was rudely awakened by the thud-thud-crash of his own songkok falling on the wooden floor. He bolted up, his severely thinning hair sticking out in all directions, looked around in slow-motion like a camel, picked up his songkok, slumped back into his seat, and went back to sleep.
As soon as the screening was over, the only woman in the appeal panel stood up, teary-eyed, and said, "Puan Yasmin, I enjoyed that film very much. Thank you both for making it. Congratulations."
My producer and I muttered under our breath, "Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah."
Next in line was a Chinese man in his 50's.
"That's not a Malay movie or a Chinese movie or an Indian movie," he declared, "That's a Malaysian movie."
Rosnah and I heaved a big sigh of relief. Clearly, we were counting our chickens before they were hatched, because from then onwards, it went downhill.
"Why didn't you bring up the issue of religion?"
"Why didn't she try to convert him? The Malays would have liked that."
"Why did you make her walk into a Chinese restaurant where non-halal food was probably served?"
"If she's supposed to be liberal, why did you make her wear baju kurung all the time?"
"A long time ago, the Malay people had two bad habits. The men liked to lie down on the floor wearing only sarongs, exposing their tummies, while the women liked to waste time picking lice from each other's hair. Are you trying to revive these old habits?"
And of course, their coup de grace, articulated by a Dato':
"We represent the rakyat (the people). We showed your film to some members of the rakyat, and I'm afraid the verdict was not favourable. They want your film stopped."
To which I replied, "My mother always tells me that my rezeki (my lot in life) is in the hands of Allah, and not in the hands of people like you or anyone else."
And on that note, Rosnah and I thanked them, and bade our farewell.
The final verdict has YET to be made. - Pn Yasmin Ahmad
More to come as i dig deeper into her blog. till next time.
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