SEPET'S Review!

New Straits Times
LIFE & TIMES
Monday, JUNE 14, 2004

You only need to spend a few minutes talking to Yasmin Ahmad to be caught up by her joie de vivre. She is funny in the way that only Johoreans from Muar can be her lover for and fascination with people are infectious.

You know she's a people's person when, on your first meeting, she candidly shares some pretty personal details about herself-she was a runaway bride three times before finding matrimonial bliss with her very Ah Pek (in her own words) husband.

And you see it through her works: yep, the Petronas TV commercials that we so love.

If you've seen enough of those festive season ads over the years, you'd know what a marvellous storyteller Yasmin, an executive creative director at Leo Burnett Advertising, is. Every story-be it a happy one, funny or heartrending-goes straight to your heart. It's this knack for drawing us into her little world that makes us eagerly await her next piece of work.

And so when film industry folk began talking about her directional debut, Rabun , months before it was aired over TV3's Cerekarama slot last year, you knew it was going to be one of the high points of an otherwise lacklustre film climate.

Rabun is a sweet, unconventional love story revolving around an elderly couple, Pak Atan (played by M.Rajoli) and Mak Inom (Kartina Aziz). They are the antithesis of the typical Malay couple of a certain age who, in the twilight years of theirs lives, remain completely devoted to each other and are not ashamed to show it.

Why, one of the scenes even has the couple bathing together (with their sarongs on, of course......) and lovingly scrubbing each other's back, which, unsurprisingly caused the Film Censorship Board to jump!

The film, says Yasmin, came about after her father collapsed from diabetic complications in 2002. "I never had any grand ambitions to make movies. But I had been meaning to make a film about parents.

"I have these 'crazy' stories about my parents. They're very unique people. So when my father collapsed, I thought, "Goodness, I'd better make a film for them to watch before anything happens."

This little homage to her parents, which was produced by Rosnah Kassim under MHz Film Sdn Bhd and made a budget of RM80,000 from Grand Brilliance Sdn Bhd, has gone places.

It has done the international festival rounds including the 5th Cinemaya Festival of Asian Cinema (India), the 21st Torino Film Festival (Italy) and the 16th Singapore International Film Festival.

Incidentally, the film won the Gold award for Best Asean Film (above 60 minutes) at the 8th Malaysian Video Awards last year.

"After Cinemaya, somebody from the San Francisco Film Festival asked to see Rabun. He saw it and liked it and sent it to Italy.

"There I was thinking they must be vomiting all over the place over my silly little film when I got a call telling me Rabun had been officially selected for screening at Torino. Then a month later, I was told it was being considered for competition!"

Out of about 3,000 films from around the world, 150 were shortlisted for screening. And out of the 150, only 11 were selected for competition. Well, guess what? That "silly little film" was one of them.

Rabun didn't win any of the top three prizes but the fact that it made it that far was pretty incredible," says Yasmin.

"If it had won I would have been deeply embarrassed. If you saw the top three films you'd understand why".

One of the things she learnt from attending those festivals and meeting filmmakers from different parts of the world was that "they're not interested in complaining or restrictions or budget limitations. They just want to talk about ideas with you, which was wonderful.

"It was such a nice change because over here whenever I talk to fellow filmakers, they're always complaining about budgets, how the government is not helping and how strict the Censorship Board is."

"So I told my friends here 'Lets stop complaining, let's just make films. There's a whole bunch of us.......me, Yuhang, James(Lee), Amir(Muhammad), Osman Ali. We just want to make films."

But not the kind with Erra Fazira in them, says Yasmin.

She quickly points out: " There are already people making those films and some of them are quite fun to watch. But we don't want to make those kinds of films. We want to make films about our own lives.

She quotes a Spanish filmmaker who says a nation is nothing without the story it tells about itself.

"(Datuk ) Lat does it through his cartoons and I try to do it in Petronas commercials. But we don't really have films that tell stories about ourselves. Our films tell stories of middle-class fantasies."

She adds that there's nothing wrong with that. It's just that she doesn't want to go there. "I want to make films about lower to middle-class realities. I'm not interested in making films about the upper class because I think they lead such boring lives.

"James is telling stories about the Chinese community and that's just wonderful. And Amir.......well, Amir is very courageous. He's telling stories about political upheavals and stuff like that."

For now Yasmin just wants to tell stories about her parents. She believes everybody has a story to tell. Yeah, but not everybody has such fascinating stories or colourful characters in their lives.

"Sure they do," she insists and proceeds to ask me a naughty question to drive home her point." See? I bet you could make a whole movie on THAT!" she laughs, having rendered me speechless.

Following the encouraging response to Rabun, Yasmin soon got started on her second feature, Sepet. This time round Yasmin and Rosnah forked out their own money, with a little help from FINAS (National Film Development Corporation).

" Sepet is not as autobiographical as Rabun. It's a mixture of different segments of my life."

She's not done with Pak Atan and Mak Inom yet but this time the focus is on their daughter Orked. The two movies are in no way related, says Yasmin.

Sepet takes a look at an interracial relationship. But not the kind we've been fed with, she explains.

"Whenever I watch a Malay film about people of different races in a relationship, there always seems to be a problem. Because I've only been exposed to such films I thought this must be a common problem."

That's why she thinks her story - based on her personal experience, naturally -is one that's worth telling. "I had Chinese and Indian boyfriends. My parents never had problems with them and their parents never seemed to have problems with me."

Before the shot the film, some of her friends who read the script had asked, 'Where's the problem? Where's the crisis? For the dramatic effect, you know.....'

"But that's not what Sepet is about. If my family had a problem with interracial relationships, then this would not be an interesting story to tell because every movie about interracial relationships has a crisis.

Yasmin has had private screenings of Sepet and so far response has been encouraging. And why not? She's assembled a team of talented actors, from established names and fairly new faces to complete unknowns.

Harith Iskander and Ida Nerina give delicious portrayals of (the younger )Pak Atan and Mak Inom while Sharifah Amani Syed Zainal Rashid Al -Yahya, in her first lead role, gives splendid performance of Orked.

Then there is that fantastic singer Adibah Noor, who is fast making name as an actress, playing the family's lovable servant Kak Yam.

and Orked's boyfriend is played by art director Choo Seong (Yasmin's colleague), who has never acted in his life. Theatre veteran Thor Kah Hoong plays his wheelchair-bound, verbally abusive father and newcomer Tan Mei ling is his long - suffering wife.

Shoit entirely in Ipoh, Perak, Sepet is one of the few local productions that can truly be called a Malaysian film.

Next up is Gubra, says Yasmin, who's in the midst of completing the script. It tells of the emotional roller - coaster ride her family went through the morning her father collapsed.

Going by the respect and admiration she's getting from industry folk -mainstream or otherwise the Woody Allen of Malaysia may happen sooner that she thinks.

"whenever he makes a film he can get big stars to act in if for almost nothing just because they want to be in it. I know I'm being a bit ambitious but wouldn't it be wonderful to be in that position?"

Well, for Sepet, Harith and Ida practically offered themselves for free just to be in a Yasmin Ahmad film. Who knows, when she's done with making all those Metrowealth movies, Erra Fazira may just come a knocking on her door?