The BIG Durian?
Probably you can define this in 2 ways.
1. The king of fruit (As a Malaysian, I suppose.)
2. The capital of Indonesia - Jakarta
But Malaysian Media and Culture tutorial class this week (24/2/16) has suggested me to think about this...
A 75-min documentary film written, narrated and directed by Amir Muhammad in 2003, which has made this week's class quite a pretty interesting one.
But obviously,
the documentary has nothing to do with the fruit. The Big Durian is a multilingual film revolves around Private Adam,
who was a soldier ran amok with an M16 machine gun in Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur and
caused a terrifying effect for many Malaysians on 18 October 1987. His amok has
triggered a citywide panic and rumours of racial riots due to the thorny
circumstances of the location and time. Nine days after the date marked the implementation
of the infamous Internal Security Act due to “Operation Lalang”. There are 23
Malaysians took part in it to talk about how the series of events has affected
them and their perceptions towards it.
The documentary
started off by having a Sabahan namely Dania Muluk who was a waitress to denote
the conflict between of what she thought Kuala Lumpur would be and how Kuala
Lumpur actually is. It was followed by a few interviewees talk about what they
know about the Private Adam issue, then unintentionally brought up their racial
and political perspectives, which we all can understand that as after effect of
the issue.
As a participatory documentary, director Amir Muhammad stepped out from behind-the-scene and appeared the documentary as an
interviewer and narrator. By doing this, it makes him able to tell his views of
the issue from his point of view by collecting information from the
interviewees. At the same time, fulfill the curiousity of himself and the
Malaysians who wanted to know more but too afraid to tell about it.
Among the
23 people, some of them are the real figure who actually exposed to the issue, some
are fictional characters. They are Malaysians who come from different
backgrounds by sharing their opinions. By doing this, their identities can be
protected to avoid getting caught by the authority. In a way, it gives the
audience some possible justification from the Malaysians’ perspective and also
guide them into the religious, ethnic and political views. Every pieces of it are
genuine. Medium close up shot and close up shot are highly employed in the
documentary to ask the audience to pay attention.
Despite how
foreigners always review the country as a relaxed place to spend their time and
lives with, The Big Durian let people understand that the political and racial tensions in Malaysia are a
big concern for us the Malaysians. Not very much about the Private Adam, but since
then, this is how things have changes over the years among the Malaysians.
Something
worth mentioning here. It is the one and only Malaysian film that has the
honour to shown at the Sundance Film Festival 2004 as part of the World
Documentaries Program.
Whether you’re
a Malaysian, or you really want to discover anything about Malaysia in a more
in-depth way….. Or, if you’re too lazy to do some research over articles and
articles… this 74 minutes (One hour and 14 minutes) documentary will do for
you!
