SELUBUNG

Synopsis

Selubung is a drama film directed by Suhaimi Baba starring by M.Nasir, Deanna Yusoff, Ida Nerina and Harith Iskandar in 1992.Mastura (Deanna Yusoff), who returns from her studies at Perth and lose her best friend, E.J (Ida Nerina). who has chosen to follow the path of the religious extremist group led by Brother Musa (Harith Iskandar). Mas decides to pick up voluntary work as her mission to promote good will for society. Halim, who has had experiences working abroad serving the Middle East, supports Mastura's good intention and encourages her to join RESCAID, a volunteer organization. In her line of duty in helping the children refugees from Palestine, Mastura falls in love with Kamal (M. Nasir), a divorcee who shares the cause she is pursuing. The success of a nation-wide charity concert promoted by Mastura and the team from RESCAID becomes the pride of the locals. One day, the bombing of Rescaid office seriously injures Mastura but still can’t stop her to work in RESCAID after she comes out from coma.

For me, Selubung is typically Malaysia film which focus on beautiful, young people and especially young women. I like the way that Suhaimi Baba develop the character of Mastura. This film also won the best story and the best actress award at Malaysia film Festival in that year. Mastura is a young, independent, strong minded and able to stand up to any modern challenges that the future might pose. Mastura choose to actively involved in RESCAID and choose her own career after come back from Perth.  She met the manager of RESCAID, Dr Sardar who appeared as a functional role model of Mas. Mas also not forget the importance of Terengganu and Mas visits her father after she finish meeting Dr Sardar. Besides, the love story between Kamal and Mas has dominates the entire film. Story started with Mas meet Kamal in the accident and after that met him in the office. When the branch manager introduce Kamal to Mas that his is their employer. But love story between them still continue even Mas knew that Kamal is a married man.For the female filmmaker like Suhaimi Baba always focus on modern female characters which does not involve female emancipation. Indeed Suhaimi Baba presented  a second portrayal of femininity on Mastura.

I don’t like the style of editing. The flow of the entire film make the audience confuse make people confuse flashback. So that I need to watch this movie several times to understand the entire story. The scene jumping from real life to Perth life about Hani and E.J. had created a big question mark to the audience.

From my point of view, I like the part when Pintu (Hattan) appear in the movie. The way of Suhaimi Baba to present of character of Pintu is interesting and the way he talks and acts bring a lot of fun to me. Pintu has created great atmosphere to the entire movie even though he is an unimportant character. Kamal called to RESCAID office to explain everything to Mas, but Pintu answered and trying to become middle person of Mas and Kamal. The way he talking to Kamal is really funny and make the scene become more warmly.

One of the scene in the Terengganu, when Mas was a girl with her godfather with the drum ceremony.She is suddenly surrounded by a multitude of butterflies and contain the impact of Malay cultural tradition. And her godfather told her that the butterflies can bring her luck. Suhaimi Baba  in this condition still won’t forget to apply some Malay cultural inside to remind us this is a Malaysia film. The bombing of the RESCAID office seriously injured Mas. On the other side, Mas’s godfather and his fellow villages starting to pray for Mas. And again, butterflies appear inside her hospital room. Luckily, she comes out of the coma.

I choose this particular scene to become the Misc en Scene and Misc en shot references. The whole entire scene starting with Kamal stood beside his car overlooking Kuala Lumpur at dawn, Mas lying on the bed in hospital and some cutaway shot of Dr. Sardar, Palestine children and Mas and her godfather. Let’s talk about Kamal first, he stood in tears next to his car and phone rang before the prayers began. Next, Mas seriously injured and lying on the bed and butterflies appear in every single shot because Dr. Sardar giving Mas hope on RESCAID, Palestine children with Zac and Halim who work at there and giving hope to the children and last Mas and her godfather who always taught Mas to become a good girl. Finally, I choose the shot when Pintu bring Kamal to Mas’s room to have look at the butterflies. On that shot, we can the canopy of light shines upon Mas. Besides, we can see the try to put the overlay of butterflies when come to editing. And the background sound creates curiosity to the audience.

References

Levitin, J., Raoul, V., & Plessis, J. (2003). Women Filmmakers. In Refocusing. (1st ed.). Canada: Book Publishing Industry Development Program. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=bxO38D-I1UoC&pg=PA238&lpg=PA238&dq=Suhaimi+Baba+in+Selubung&source=bl&ots=J8tnyrft-Z&sig=Uz04rGgm3BdPTUbQLXDc3VfHHyM&hl=en&ei=JEq_Tu-lDozMrQfD_dW7AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CGEQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Hattan&f=false

Cheng, K. G. (2006). Reclaiming Adat. InContemporary Malaysia Film and Literature. (1st ed.). Singapore: NUS Publishing. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=3u9XF4naanMC&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&dq=Suhaimi+Baba+in+Selubung&source=bl&ots=cHCZXBmwHF&sig=NfHNo6szSAwCigRZeLoL5LU5wkI&hl=en&ei=JEq_Tu-lDozMrQfD_dW7AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAg#v=snippet&q=Hattan&f=false