About 15 to 20 years ago political cartoonist Zunar (Zulkiflee SM Anwar Ulhaque) had planned to make a movie on Anwar Ibrahim.

In 2012, he saw the movie 'Rayya, Cahaya D Atas Cahaya' which was written and directed by Indonesian filmmaker Viva Westi.

“It was a philosophical film and these types of films don’t do well in Malaysian cinemas. But I thought she would be perfect to direct a film on Anwar. The only problem was I had no way of contacting her,” said Zunar during an interview with Malaysiakini, together with Viva and leading man Farid Kamil.

In August 2021, Viva contacted Zunar out of the blue on social media, introduced herself and spoke about making a film on Anwar. She was familiar with Anwar’s story which was regularly featured in Indonesian media, such as articles in Tempo magazine.

Suddenly, Zunar's dream of making the movie was coming to fruition but they had difficulty finding a Malaysian actor to play Anwar.

“We can use Indonesian actors to play supporting characters but needed a Malaysian actor to play Anwar, especially...