Yasmin shares hope through film

Yasmin shares hope through film

Paul F. Agusta, Contributor, Kuala Lumpur

Not only does Yasmin Ahmad light up the silver screen with her optimistic themes, she lights up any room that she walks into.

On one recent Thursday evening, she warmly welcomed friends and colleagues to the screening room at the office of Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur, where she serves as executive creative director, to view the rough cut of her latest cinematic labor of love, Sepet.

As the final credits rolled in the hushed room, Yasmin told the awestruck gathering, "Hope is such an elusive thing, it's something that I've been wanting to capture through my work .... I wasn't able to do it through music or through poetry, but I hope to capture hope on film."

Yasmin, whose early job experiences included a stint as a blues pianist and whose first feature film, Rabun, has won international acclaim, told The Jakarta Post: "Did I capture hope in my films? It's not for me to say really, but I have had feedback. Some Italian journalists who saw Rabun at the Torino International Film Festival told me at a press conference that they hoped to find love like the old couple in the film. Hope."

"I believe that even the most skeptical of viewers secretly wish they had what the characters in my film have. I hope my so- called 'idealistic' films will persuade people to choose love over hatred in their lives."

Yasmin, who has expressed concern about the overriding darkness in the contemporary cinematic trends of violence and hate, bases her positive forays into the world of cinema on personal experience. In fact, it was a life-shaking event that motivated the making of her first feature-length film.

"Having been in ad-land for 20 years, I had learned some tricks of the film trade. Several commercials I wrote and directed had won some local and international recognition. Even so, I had no real intention of making a film until two years ago when my father had a near-death experience. It jolted me out of my lazy state and I decided to make a film about my parents, to amuse them. That film was Rabun."

She attributes her upbeat view of life to her upbringing, which she is not certain had any direct input on her gravitation toward the arts. "Ah, the epistemology of Yasmin's blind faith and love. I was borne (eds: She used the word "borne" not "born" because she is adopted) of parents who express their feelings unusually freely. Too freely as both my ex and present husbands might say."

"My parents are in their 70s but still shower together. They sleep holding hands. They still have sex. Coming out of the shower, they strut around naked, while us kids continue whatever it is that we're doing without batting an eyelid because ... well, because it's all par for the course really. Can these things affect one as an artist?"

Along with Yasmin's love of life and belief in human goodness, her indefatigably irreverent sense of humor is at the core of the popularity of her films among audiences from all walks of life and cultural backgrounds. You can't watch a Yasmin Ahmad film without being astonished at the resilience and beauty of the human spirit.

"All I know is that my favorite human traits are the ability to love, to show compassion and to hope. I believe these things come from God. I hope my films can one day make these human traits 'cool' again."

Yasmin tells the story of a conversation with an atheist friend who asked her what God was, and she in turn asked him if he had ever experienced one moment of unconditional love. He replied in the affirmative, and Yasmin said that in that moment he had seen a piece of God.

As Yasmin is fond of saying, "God works in installments."

She says of her film career: "It is only due to God's intervention and the hard work of my people that I now have my name on three Cannes awards, including one Gold Lion."

Rabun also garnered her the Gold trophy at the Malaysian Video Awards (MVA) for best film director.

For her advertising work, Yasmin has earned one London International Gold statue for Best Print Campaign, seven Asian Media marketing awards, one gold, two silver and one bronze orb from Adfest and five Best Commercial of the Year trophies from the MVA.

With the thoughtful, sensitive Sepet almost ready for release, she may be well on her way to outstripping her acclaim as an ad person by winning even more feature film awards.

Unsurprisingly, Yasmin, whose energy and ebullient spirit plunge her forward to success in her various undertakings, already has another film project underway in the scriptwriting stage.

"I am writing Gubra, a story that begins on the morning my mother told us that we were about to lose my father and the 24 hours that followed," she told the Post. "Within that one day, our family cried the hardest, laughed the loudest, was happiest and saddest, fought the most violently and loved the most deeply than ever before in our lives. There was more heightened emotions in that one day than many people have had in their entire lifetimes. I figured it might be a film worth making."

If the quality of Rabun and Sepet are any indication of what Gubra promises to be, Yasmin's coming creative efforts are surely going to be well worth waiting for.