WHAT does it take to build a career in film? For renowned Malaysian director and playwright Al Jafree Md Yusop, it takes falling in love with a film he watched at the tender age of eight, having his dreams to study the art of filmmaking turned down, pursuing agricultural studies and being an accountant for ten years.
As cliched as it may seem, his life is proof that whatever is meant for you will always find its way back to you.
The same unfolded when he wanted to launch his newest film, Mencari Rahmat, on Malaysia’s big screen.
In the 1980s, he was moved by Oscar Wilde’s classic story The Importance of Being Ernest, and he felt that the subject was very relevant to Malaysian society because of its themes and ideas that no one is very free to become themselves and society can be the worst prison known to mankind.
“The only time you are really free is when you are in the bathroom and you are looking at yourself in the mirror.
“When you walk out, you assume a different identity because we are always trapped by the idea of being judged by society.
“I felt like I had to share it with people and the only way to do it is through an adaptation rather than the translation,” he said.
That was the motivation behind Mencari Rahmat, a satirical film that was first written for the stage in 2003. It took him another 15 years to finally put it on film. When it was ready to hit the cinemas in 2017, he hit a roadblock and the premiere had to be postponed to 2020.
Then, the movement control order (MCO) hit when it was scheduled to hit the big screens. It was pushed back to September, when the second round of the MCO was enforced. Again, it was rescheduled for June 2021 and again another MCO was called.
“Even before the film was originally set to launch in cinemas, MUBI, an online streaming service for indie films, approached me but I told them I want it out on the cinemas before it goes on to streaming channels.
“But after so many delays, and not knowing when cinemas will be open and how the public will react, I decided to put Mencari Rahmat on MUBI.”
A brave social satire about how far two bachelor friends, Razak and Azman, will go for the sake of love and revenge, you might guffaw in shock, whether or not you have watched the original version of Wilde’s play.
Featuring well-known Malaysian stars like Amerul Affendi, Namron, Sharifah Amani, Nadia Aqilah and the larger than life Adibah Noor, and set in only two locations, audiences will be moved by their witty dialogue and sharp comebacks.
To celebrate Jafree’s admission into the MUBI streaming platform, he will also be celebrated as the guest curator of the month and has picked out ten of his favourite films of all time.
“The most important subject to me is any movie that handles the complex relationship between a man and woman.
“Most of the movies that I handpicked is about that, and that includes my most favourite movie, The Apartment by Billy Wilder that I watched when I was eight. It is a movie done in 1960 about a very complex relationship between an ambitious man and a working-class woman. That movie alone inspired me to become a filmmaker.
“Another film that I chose was Charles Chaplin’s Modern Times, a sharp and critical piece about the industrial revolution and the working class, to the point where some even accuse him of being a communist.
“You’ll see that somehow the shows I picked have a theme; either a complex relationship between the male and female species or any movie that deals with class struggle, and that this is what Mencari Rahmat is all about,” he told The Vibes. – The Vibes, March 19, 2022
