Sofia Jane stars in a movie set for the prestigious Rotterdam festival

Rhu Graha and Gunung Cherita have announced that the film Maryam Pagi Ke Malam will premiere at the prestigious International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2023 in January 2023.

The film has been selected for the IFFR’s Harbour programme, which curates a full range of contemporary cinema from across the globe.

Maryam Pagi Ke Malam is the sole Malaysian film (pictured above) and marks the return to the big screen of celebrated actress Sofia Jane. 

Others in the cast include Susan Lankester, Vanidah Imran, Omar Abdullah, Roslan Madun, Pekin Ibrahim, Azman Hassan, Bella Rahim and Taqim Zaki.

Badrul Hisham Ismail directed the screenplay he co-wrote with Faisal Tehrani. The plot follows a day in the life of Maryam, a 50-year-old gallerist from an aristocratic family, as she seeks her father’s blessing to marry and overcomes bureaucratic challenges that prevent women like her from choosing their spouses.

Maryam Pagi Ke Malam is produced by Rhu Graha (a unit of Gunung Cherita), Anomalous Films and Kerja Summer, and is supported by the Communications and Digital Ministry, MyCreative Ventures and Penjana.

IFFR will be held from Jan 25 to Feb 5, 2023, in the port city of Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Executive producer Lutfi Hakim Ariff and director Badrul shed more light on this film during an interview with Malaysiakini.

“I got the idea for the main premise for the film and then shared it with Faisal. We’ve been wanting to collaborate for quite a while and I thought this would be a good opportunity. So we bounced a few ideas and wrote the script,” Badrul said.

Lutfi added that in their previous collaborations, they had heard from many different communities across Malaysia about the challenges that people face and how they overcame them (or didn’t).

“We had a belief that with the right support and opportunity, these stories were more than worthy of being shared so that more people knew about the different facets of Malaysia that people experience. 

"When MyCreative Ventures introduced the Penjana Art House Film grant and made a call for submissions, we put in our entry, but it was initially a different angle on this issue,” Lutfi elaborated.

Maryam is an urbanite who is educated and comes from a well-to-do background.

“A Muslim woman marrying for the first time does require permission from her wali, her male guardian. And a wali can refuse, which we call 'wali enggan', which means the woman will have to go through other means and processes to get the court to permit the marriage,” Badrul explained.

Lutfi said that beyond the focus on legal and bureaucratic procedures, he found Sofia Jane’s take on the character in the movie to be very insightful.

“She describes it as a portrayal of how isolating it is to be a woman in Malaysia, even for someone as privileged and well-off as Maryam,” he added.

“She’s quite an obvious choice to play the role. We were more concerned if she didn’t want to do it, since it’s a really small budget film, and we’re not known in the industry. Lucky for us, she was interested in the script and the role,” Badrul said of his leading lady.

“Sofia really owned this role and made the script leap off the page. It was a great privilege to be able to work with such a talented person,” Lutfi added.

The man Maryam wants to marry is an African. Asked if it is a race issue or a religious issue, Badrul cryptically replied, “It’s about the others.”

After IFFR, they are hoping to screen the film at other festivals and also with Malaysian audiences across different regions.

They are unable to provide a date for when the film will be screened in cinemas in Malaysia

“To be honest, we don’t know yet. There’s the Lembaga Penapisan Filem that we need approval from if we want to screen in local cinemas,” explained Badrul.

“We have had some initial inquiries from distributors, agencies and streaming services since we completed the film’s production, and discussions are ongoing,” Lutfi said.

Important kick start  

"We got an RM400,000 grant from MyCreative and that’s what we started with. Filming started in early June this year," Badrul added.

“The initial grant made it possible to get the project off the ground, and we were also fortunate that we found partners and supporters who were willing to chip in, in some way or form, to get it over the finish line,” Lufti explained.

As to why it was so important to get this film made, Lufti said, “For Rhu Graha-Gunung Cherita, this was the first time we made a feature film, and we were very lucky to have found committed collaborators and supporters who believed in the vision of the project. 

"We have always tried to infuse social consciousness in our work, creatively and responsibly. A lot of gratitude has to be expressed to our co-producers, Anomalous Films and Kerja Summer, Sofia Jane, Susan Lankester, the rest of the cast and crew, and also the people behind-the-scenes who saw the potential of the film from very early on, and took that risk with us together.

"IFFR’s recognition of not only this film but also, Malaysian films featured in previous editions, shows that our film industry is more than capable of producing world-class movies, given the right support and resources.”

Badrul said simply: “I just want to make a movie.”

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