KUALA LUMPUR – The proposed Malaysian film Angel of Sandakan has been making headlines lately since the National Film Development Corporation (Finas) made a U-turn on its funding. This was despite drawing interest from Hollywood-linked production houses since 2018.
Now, thanks to the film’s production team PETRA Vision Works, helmed by Datuk Afdlin Shauki Aksan, The Vibes has exclusively obtained the animated trailer to explain its plot.
It is important to note, however, that the animated trailer is done merely to showcase Angel of Sandakan’s potential as an entry for Malaysia’s Road to the Oscars project.
If made into a film, it will be a full-blown, live-action production penned by Hollywood screenwriters featuring actors.
Afdlin, who is chief executive of PETRA Media, said while many filmmakers use storyboards to explain a pitch, he went the extra mile to make an animated trailer that was well received by Finas.
He said the movie is reminiscent of other historically based flicks on prisoners of war (POWs), such as Werner Herzog’s Rescue Dawn, as well as Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken.
Plot behind the historically based Angel of Sandakan
The film chronicles the experience of a Sabahan girl who saves the lives of Australian POWs at the end of World War 2.
Set against the backdrop of Japanese-ruled Sabah, the movie portrays the infamous Death March of the soldiers, which saw nearly 2,500 of them die as they pushed through dense forests to Ranau, some 161km away.
The plot of the animated trailer begins with the Japanese Imperial Army deciding to build a military airfield at the port of Sandakan to protect oilfields captured in Borneo.
Arriving at Sandakan on July 18, 1942, the mostly Australian POWs and some Britons – who surrendered to the Japanese in Singapore – lived a life of torment.
Under their captors, the soldiers suffered disease, brutality, torture and malnutrition during the airstrip’s construction.
Following the spectacular explosions of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese army in Sandakan receive orders to cover their war crimes, leading to the Death March.
It was during this march that many of them perished due to illness or were killed by the Japanese, but Sabah locals also went out of their way to help the POWs in a display of true heroism.
Ultimately, out of the 2,500 POWs shipped to Sandakan, only six men survived.
The film was green-lighted by Finas in 2018 for the Road to Oscars project, with a grant given to Afdlin for script development.
It was even supposed to be a pilot project under the Australian-Malaysian co-production treaty to usher in a new age of cinema for both countries.
However, three weeks after Afdlin joined PKR, Finas rejected the film, with chairman Datuk Zakaria Abdul Hamid saying it did not fulfil certain criteria.
Finas’ CEO, the actor Ahmad Idham Nadzri, has not responded to calls and messages to provide clarity on the matter. – The Vibes, May 10, 2021
