MALAYSIANSKINI | When filmmaker Hidayah Hisham was nine, she was told that her father had left on a trip to India. What she didn’t know was that she would not see him again for the next three years of her childhood.

“Even though they were saying my dad was in India, I was definitely missing him.

“I definitely started suspecting something was wrong in the sense that there were no messages and letters from him,” said Hidayah in a phone interview with Malaysiakini.

In reality, Hidayah’s father was being detained at the Sungai Buloh prison while he faced the possibility of being executed under the criminal charge Section 39(b) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 - which prescribes the death penalty as punishment for possessing over 200g or more of cannabis.

Fifteen years later, the 25-year-old filmmaker would find herself encountering the same legal process her parents did when she began work as the director of the documentary Ayahku, Dr G at the start of the pandemic last year.

A lonely struggle

Ayahku, Dr G may at first glance appear to be...