Nobody took the Malaysian film industry seriously while popular comedies and melodramas, zombie parodies and supernatural horror films with vampire lesbians dominated it. Then a new generation of filmmakers appeared who functioned as a film commune in whom the spirit of collaboration was utterly valued and perfected.
Even though most people regard him as a Thai director in spite his Malaysian roots, for a short time Tsai Ming-Liang returned to Malaysian cinema with his great film about lonely bodies (I Don't Want to Sleep Alone) that (like the already established Woo Ming Jin’s new film Tiger Factory) dealt with the washed out lives of immigrants in Kuala Lumpur. The death of the most famous Malaysian director Yasmin Ahmad stopped the production of her film Wasurenagusa, in which she was supposed to learn more about her grandmother’s Japanese roots. In her semi-autobiographical romantic drama Mukshin she confronts the diametrically opposed characters of a boy and a girl who come from different social backgrounds. In the film Talentime she confronts the multiculturalism with a romance between a young Malaysian girl and a mute Indian who drives her to the high school talent show rehearsals.
Such confrontations of differences became sort of a trademark of the new Malaysian film. In the minimalist drama with spare dialogue Flower in the Pocket, directed by young Liew Seng Tata, we follow two boys who live on the street after their mother has left, while their father neglects them by isolating himself from the world and repairing mannequin dolls. The contrast is again present in the character of a boyish girl who has an idyllic family in her mother and grandmother. Afdlin Shauki (Papadom) uses a similar motif of a (possessive) relationship between a widowed father and his daughter.
As a Shauki, director Ahmad also belongs to the Muslim current of the Malaysian cinema. Her film Muallaf caused controversy because the moralists were bothered by the fact that one of the actresses shaved her head for the film, even though its main messages, those of forgiveness and a need to establish dialogue between different religious books, The Old Testament and Kuran, have a universal character. This current is also represented by the authors of the popular TV series Upin & Ipin directed by Mohd Nizam Abdul Razak, Mohd Sewfan Abdul Karim & Usmah Zaid, whose first season tried to bring the importance of Ramadan closer to the hearts of children. However, Malaysian film has a lot more to say. (Dragan Rubeša)