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.