IT’S strange that it has taken more than two years for most Malaysians to be aware of the indie movie Mentega Terbang, which has suddenly been besieged by controversy.
The movie has earned the wrath of many Muslims, with at least six police reports already made.
It was only when the picture was screened on Viu, a regional video streaming platform, that it drew critical attention.
It was then taken down on Feb 26, but the entire film has been uploaded on YouTube.
A check yesterday, however, revealed that it has disappeared from YouTube. I won’t be surprised if it re-appears again.
It received over 24,000 views within a day while the official trailer garnered 181,000 views. The traction has likely exceeded the producer’s expectations.
The film was screened at the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival in 2021 and the Aceh Film Festival in 2022, as well as at closed door screenings in Malaysia.
So, why the furore now? No one is sure.
Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil is right to raise doubts and question the delayed reaction after two years.
Arguably, it looks like a hot political potato that’s been thrown like a grenade onto the new government to test its commitment to Malays and Islam, with state elections merely months away.
The race and religion narrative has predictably received a new lease on life by opponents of the unity government, who want to portray themselves as the flagbearers of Malay rights and Islam.
Those results aside, the movie has indeed earned a lot of ire on social media among Muslims.
Still, it’s uncertain how many of these critics have watched the entire movie.
There are a few local movies that address the subjects of religion, human mortality, and life after death.
They promote thinking and discussion relating to religion, which seems rare since producers would rather invest in projects that have appeal and promise financial returns.
Religion, regardless of faith, is supposed to bring believers and non-believers together, but it can also be divisive.
So, the safest way is to stay out, especially if a filmmaker aspires to have mass appeal.
In an interview by an Indonesia film critic, Mentega Terbang producer Khairi Anwar described it as a passion project involving friends from multiracial backgrounds from the local theatre scene.
It had a small budget with a handful of actors and minimal shooting, done mostly during weekends because the crew had full-time jobs. Filming was completed in six weeks with rehearsals done in the evenings.
I’m not sure if they expected a backlash. The dialogue, mostly in Malay and English, is representative of an urban Malay family living in Kuala Lumpur.
Both mum and dad are open-minded and liberal – a word now criminalised by conservatives – and they encourage their daughter, Aisyah, an inquisitive 15-year-old, to ask questions and make independent decisions.
However, the proverbial red line is crossed when Aisyah, played by Syumaila Salihin, tries eating char siew pau (pork bun) and in another scene, dad gives Aisyah the freedom to choose another faith.
It earns an immediate rebuke from her, with dad, played by Firdaus Karim, saying he had picked Islam as his faith and would continue to embrace it. The movie ends with Aisyah’s reaffirmation of her faith.
There’s a part where a nosy but well-meaning neighbour, Uncle Kasim, advises Aisyah not to accept any drinks from a Christian, Aunty Esther, because “it may contain holy water.”
Of course, it was meant to be sardonic because Christians certainly don’t use holy water. In fact, that’s purely a Catholic practice when entering a church. And since Covid-19, it has been dispensed with entirely.
Aisyah’s father has a tattoo in the shape of a butterfly on his body, which is forbidden in Islam and Christianity, too.
Both religions are against it since it involves changing the natural creation of God and inflicting unnecessary pain in the process.
The essence of the movie is about Aisyah, who fears losing her cancer-stricken mum, and hopes for her to go to heaven.
In between, the insecure girl tries to learn more about other faiths, including the belief of reincarnation.
While this is a work of fiction, it’s understandable that many Muslims are uncomfortable with this discourse about Islam, with the impression that the tenets of Islam are challenged.
To these critics, there seems to be an underlying theme questioning the faith.
There are calls to ban the movie, but with the way the Internet works, it will simply pop up on many other video sharing platforms.
It’s impossible for the government to order a ban unless we have our own alternative video sharing platforms like China’s Weibao.
Film producers have also begun to pitch their work to Netflix and Amazon Prime, for example, to reach a wider audience, if not a global one, and bypass our censors with their many restrictions.
Malaysian subscribers of these platforms would know that many of these movies would never reach our cinemas or Astro, like the Israeli television series Fauda, for example, if our censors’ criteria are to be strictly followed.
YouTube and Google have made many things possible.
For example, a Bahasa Indonesian movie made in 2018 about a forbidden romantic relationship between a Roman Catholic nun and a pastor, is available online in its entirety.
Even the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible, which has always been contentious, can be downloaded and printed.
In the case of Mentega Terbang, the authorities have admitted that they can’t act against its content but merely its production procedures.
Still, if the intention of the team behind the movie was to explore interfaith discussion, it could have been done in a much better way.
The narrative hasn’t helped and may have set back good efforts for interfaith understanding and acceptance. If the intentions were good, then the execution didn’t match, unfortunately.
But there are still merits. There is good acting, especially from Syumaila, a PJ girl who speaks impeccable English, while the conversations, as spoken by Malaysians, sound authentic.
The minus point is that producers may now be wary of taking hard, thought-provoking subjects that challenge mindsets and test conventions in local movies beyond Malay gangsters and giggly ghosts, which unfortunately, are the regular fare.
It is most unfortunate that for many of us, we are wary of entering houses of worship of the other faiths beside ours. We are unsure but we do not have those uncertainties when we are overseas.
So in one scene, where Aisyah is in Brickfields, KL, and she seems captivated by the church and temples there, surely there should be no taboo over this unless we are overly sensitive.
But regardless of whether we like or detest Mentega Terbang, a few of my friends have just learned that it’s not “flying butter” but a literal translation of “butterfly,” which is a symbol of change and rebirth.
