Muallaf

One movie only was showing at the Picturehouse yesterday ... Muallaf.

"What can this possibly be?" I asked myself. Google ... Yahoo movies ... et voila: "Muallaf tells the story of two Malay sisters, 20 year old Rohani (Sharifah Amani) and 14 year old Rohana (Sharifah Aleysha) who are on the run from their wealthy, abusive father. Finding refuge in a small town, they meet Robert Ng (Brian Yap), a 30 year old Catholic school teacher who finds himself irresistibly drawn to the sisters and their extraordinary courage. This relationship inevitably forces Robert to confront a haunting memory of his own troubled childhood."

It sounded interesting. I decided to go ... and I was immensely rewarded. I will not tell more about the movie's plot than what is said in the teaser from Yahoo Movies. The movie is by Yasmin Ahmad, a Malaysian film director and writer. Obviously made on a small budget, it tells a simple story of relationships between parents and children, believers and non-believers.

Religion, the love of books, enquiring minds, good and evil, gentleness and brutality, joy and sadness, love, respect for and rebellion against parents, all these intersect and blend in this wonderful story told on the background of great music, in which silences and looks tell as much as words.

A rewarding time on a Saturday evening, delighting in a movie which, with a deftly used sense of humour providing comic relief, makes you feel and think about the depth and complexity of ordinary human relationships.

A last look from the terrace of our room at the Whare Kea Lodge

The Whare Kea Lodge is a magical place in New Zealand's Southern Alps (South Island). Its lounge, walled in glass from floor to ceiling, is like the bridge of a ship floating on Lake Wanaka, taking in the majestic grandeur of the Southern Alps. We spent three days there, and never tired of admiring the massif of Mount Aspiring under various lights. This was the last morning, on a slightly overcast day, and a soothing and gentle light on this tableau was urging us to stay in this haven of peace and beauty.

Two days earlier, on a bright sunny morning, the light was so different ... Even the moon looked sharp ...

Kyrie Eleison

Dark skies all day long over Singapore ...

The entrance of Orchard Road at the junction with Scotts is a tunnel under a dark cover of black clouds heavy with rain ... rain that has been falling over this equatorial city for so many days that one does not remember what a sunny day is like.

As an arch to this tunnel, a huge Merry Christmas banner greets you, ornamented with large plasticky childish figures and christmas trees ... It is too early for it to be lit yet and it looks drab in this drab stormy light. Yes, Christmas comes early in Singapore. Those signs have been up for two weeks already. They are supposed to make you merry and tell you that it is time to buy presents for your family and friends.

But, far from evoking these happy thoughts, the ugliness of these decorations is for me a dark reminder of how infantile a society Singapore is. At night, swarms of people come to Orchard Road, the commercial Mecca of Singapore, with their cameras and tripods to take pictures of these illuminations, which, presumably, they find beautiful!

This rich city state is apparently not prepared to pay for artful Christmas decorations that would elevate the taste of its people. No ... those are paid for by Hitachi. A red sign reminds you of it ... "Hitachi Inspires the Next" this sign proudly claims in white letters on the bloody background ... The next what? Who knows? Who cares?

Lacrymosa dies illa ... Mournful that day ...