MORE ON YASMIN AHMAD'S MUALLAF
At the start of the film, the different path of the two main characters, which is Rohani and Brian intersected at the end of their opening scenes. Right after that, both of them merged path towards the convent school.
It is saying something. In that scene, Rohani is reminiscing to her sister about their late mother and how both of them are missing her. While Brian is shown to argue over the phone also with his mother. And they merged at the convent school near a Catholic Church, which is considered to be a mother to her members because she is the Bride of Christ!
In my opinion, it is Yasmin Ahmad showing respect towards motherhood and its archetype and thru gestalt, ending it at the Church foretelling of the spirituality of it too.
As in all other things in life, spiritual motherhood has its binary opposition and Yasmin Ahmad showed this brilliantly throught the portrayal of both Rohani's and Brian's abusive father.
George Carlin used to satirized about the war and disaster through the history of the world and say that if there is a God, it has to be a man because, "No woman could or would ever fuck things up like this."
And looking deeper into the myth all over human civilization, such as during the early Neolithic age, the Mother Goddess reigns the belief system for them depends on fertility to be alive. Only then chaos and war happened more often after mankind moved into the Bronze age where city-states with pantheons of gods ruling from the heavens, led by a masculine god-king.
This is only what I see and I might be wrong but looking at other Yasmin Ahmad's work, I am pretty sure that she understands spirituality pretty well.
This is how films communicate and a great medium for a work of art. Not only for spectacles and pretty pictures. And how it is an extending arm of those who are no longer with us yet still speaking to us from the afterlife.
Like Andrei Tarkovsky said, “I believe in one thing: the human spirit is immortal and indestructible."
And Pak Hassan Muthalib said, "Cinema is spiritual." He also designed and handcrafted the title animation for Rahim Razali's 1986 film Tsu Feh Sofiah, which is also about being a muallaf, mother archetype and its spirituality.
My full review can be read here
https://peakd.com/hive-166847/@nazirullsafry/noob-film-review-muallaf-2008-directed-by-yasmin-ahmad