Film Journal: Selubung 1992, directed by Shuhaimi Baba

Synopsis
Mastura, who returns from her studies abroad, feels the loss of her good friends, E.J. who has chosen to follow the path of the religious extremist group led by Brother Musa. She decides to pick up voluntary work as her mission to promote good will for society. Halim, who has had experiences working abroad serving the Middle East, supports Mastura’s good intention and encourages her to join “Rescaid”, a volunteer organization. In her line of duty in helping the children refugees from Palestine, Mastura falls in love with Kamal, a divorcee who shares the cause she is pursuing. The success of a nation-wide charity concert promoted by Mastura and the team from “Rescaid” becomes the pride of the locals, until one day, tragedy strikes unexpectedly. However, it does not kill Mastura’s determination to protect the fate of the unfortunate.

In this film, the touchiest part for me is it show the history of Malaysia which the “Rescaid Organisation” activities helping the Muslims in the Middle East and save the children of Palestine. The volunteers of Rescaid are giving great effort to save the Palestinians and Muslim student in Middle East from dilemma and seek the donations for material support. This shown by the characteristic of Dr. Sandar, a strong and faithful leader who organized the activities to help the Palestinian and Muslims at Middle East and she become the great example for Mastura. And Mastura become actively involved. Another example is the scene Musa’s medical treatment of wounded children and injured people when the explosion in Middle East and the death of Halim when he sacrificed in the explosion.

By the other hand, the editing styles of this film given me a wrong impression which is the flashback and the present scenes are interspersed. It confuse the audience and hard to catch up with the storyline. There are some jump cuts scenes make the storyline more complicated. For example when the scene swift dissolve from the Western Australia suddenly cut to the scene of Kuala Lumpur where Mastura meet the manager of “Rescaid” in the office confused the audience because it does not show out with the title of the place. The audience will misunderstand that the scene is still in the same location.
In this film, there showing two different types of Malay women, between modern and traditional, which represent by Mas and E.J. The dissimilar from their personality, their dressing and their thought showing that they are influenced by different culture. When the scene shown at Perth, there is a local radio announcer broadcasting the rock music which represents the lost of the oversea student (Muslim)about their origin of social and culture.

The relationship between Mas and Kamal is the ornament of this film. Firstly, the scene starting with they know each other until they being together is going with the flow. However, the discovery of Mas about Kamal is a married man causes the broken relationship but finally they are reunion. The romance scene when Kamal proposing to Mas in front of the public is the sweetest part of and release the tension of this movie.

The references of Mise-en scene and Mise-en shot are the scene of the climax part when the Rescaid and the “Pintu” having the charity concert for the Palestinian children at Kuala Lumpur. The sensation atmosphere appears when the crowd of the people shouting and clapping their hand while doing donation and when the children are bring to the location. The song (music) that performance by the “Pintu” brought up the feeling of blissful and touching moment to the audience. Another example is the first scene at the beach, an old man is giving advice to a young girl and there are butterflies settling on his arms. After that dissolve to he is playing the traditional music instrument and the young girl is concentrate on the beating of the drum. Then change to the scene the young girl walk to join another girl and boy. The young girl is believed to represent the main character, Mastura and the old man is her grandfather. Then, the other children are E.J and Halim. This show that the strong relationship between Mas and her friend and the respectively to the advice of the elderly. Lastly, the scene show that the contrast of two Malay women that influenced and followed by different culture. E.J was wearing traditional Muslim’s costume while Mas was wearing the modern clothes. This is because Mas is influenced by the Western culture while she studying at Sydney. She is independent-minded and confidence. In the other hands, E.J. becomes the second wife of Bother Musa, a member of Tabligh, worldwide Islamic fundamentalist missionary group which loyalty to their religion (Islam) and follow the traditional Malay culture.

References
Selubung (1992). (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2011, from http://idanerina.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=26

Jacqueline Levitin, Valerie Raoul. (2003). Women Filmmakers: Refocusing. In Google Books. Retrieved November 14, 2011, from http://books.google.com.my/books?id=bxO38D-I1UoC&pg=PA238&lpg=PA238&dq=selubung+1992+analysis&source=bl&ots=J8tnztay8Y&sig=G_F8wCRGnnqf4leE34ElGgHWVE4&hl=en&ei=qQ3BTqq-Lsa4rAfu4YXiAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=selubung%201992%20analysis&f=false