If you know who's the late Yasmin Ahmad, then you would have known about her last movie “Muallaf”. Yes, it's finally up in Malaysia cinemas for some weeks now and I've finally watched it.
I could have watched it during its premier when I got the tickets BUT THEN the AVATAR premier (which *yes, I also got the tickets*)was on the SAME NIGHT SAME TIME~!Well... Ummhmm... I went to the later...
Brief introduction from CinemaOnline:
"Muallaf" tells the story of two Malay sisters, 20 year old Rohani (Sharifah Amani) and 14 year old Rohana (Sharifah Aleysha) who are on the run from their wealthy, abusive father. Finding refuge in a small town, they meet Brian (Brian Yap), a 30 year old Catholic school teacher who finds himself irresistibly drawn to the sisters and their extraordinary courage. This relationship inevitably forces Robert to confront a haunting memory of his own troubled childhood.
Muallaf is mainly about issues of love and forgiveness. The passion of the two sisters seeking comfort and peace from the word of God, *both Quran and Bible*. It's not like betraying one's religion but it's more of wanting to know more about God thus they do comparitive study between both.
From this movie I learnt that, and or your information, “Muallaf” means “convert” in direct translation but let's NOT go into the religious issues here, k? Don't burn my blog~*
I like the part where Rohani says “People are afraid of what they don't understand...”. When she says “Why do people always hang their hopes on other people? ”
I like it when both the sisters pray for forgiveness every night before they go to sleep.
I like it when both the sisters are so familiar with the verses from both the scriptures and they can find SO many similarities. I like it when they ask “Why do people fight over religion when we're all brothers?” That's a question a lot of us should ponder about. Weren't we thought to LOVE one another?
I'm sure Yasmin Ahmad's intention is not to say people of certain religion is so strict and mean in the movie. In fact, she's trying to put it in a way that everyone in some way make mistakes, even when they think they're doing the right thing, it maybe hurtful, and thus it's important for us to FORGIVE! *I once heard "Don't try to be holier than God." Indeed, lots of time it is not for us to JUDGE what others do.*
Interestingly, the main background of it is set in Ipoh~! Well, as I lived in Ipoh for couple of years, it made me keep thinking "Where is this?" and such.. But the ONLY place I'm totally sure of is the UdaOcean with its "UO" logo~ XD
In Yasmin Ahmad's movie, you can always find peace and unity regardless of unnecessary issues the politicians like to make a big fuss about...
it's REALLY a VERY good storyline. Simple yet reminds you what is peace at heart.