NOOB FILM REVIEW. ANWAR: THE UNTOLD STORY directed by Viva Westi.

SYNOPSIS (IMDB)
Based on the period in Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's life when he became Finance Minister from 1991 until he was fired from the Cabinet in 1998, which sparked a period of the political uprising known as the Malaysian "Reformasi".
Genre - Biography. Drama. History.

THE OPENING SCENES
It shows Anwar's character (Farid Kamil) being blindfolded and walking into a white glowing door. It is an indexical visual cue similar to the ending of 'The Joker' where he walked within a bright corridor towards a door with blood in his hand. That scene is at the end and after the audience already knows why he is there. In Anwar: The Untold Story, it is in the beginning and a new audience without the prior knowledge of the story will not know the significance.

In the next scene, when Anwar is being beaten by the cop, he shouted 'Allahuakbar' and the voice echoes to the next scene of his wife Azizah (Acha Septriasa) praying. This is the text-book "tonal montage" which cuts according to the emotional "tone" of the piece. And in this case, it speaks of the relationship between the two characters and their submission to God. These two instances in the opening shots speak of the Indonesian director Viva Westi, who knows her stuff.

A TEXT-BOOK "THE HERO'S JOURNEY"
Act 1 is of the main character having his "call to adventure" where his principles are being challenged by his own family member for being denied the government contract. In that frame, the words "Allah" and "Muhammad" is in the background, another signifier that God is with him and he is doing the right thing. The scene is similar to one from P. Ramlee's Semerah Padi where the character Taruna (Nordin Ahmad) has mercy upon discovering Aduka's and Dara's affair and the words "Allah" is in the background.

From here and through Act 2, the Anwar character goes through the "The Ordeal" stage of the Hero's Journey. He fought his "Monster" which is Dr. M and his corrupt gang and also his own "Inner Monster" and "Shadow" which challenges his principles in fighting corruption.

THE TYPES OF BIOPIC
This brings me to a comparison between two recent Hollywood biopic films. One is Bohemian Rhapsody which is about Freddie Mercury and the other one is Rocketman which is about Elton John. While Bohemian Rhapsody is like a filmic interpretation of a Wikipedia article, Rocketman is shown with some visual style. For example, the scene where Elton John's legs floated while he was at the top of his stage piano performance. Sure, it did not happen in real life but it is what cinema is.

Same here in "Anwar: The Untold Story" where at his lowest point, his younger self appeared and played the role of "The Mentor" and motivated him to get up. This stage in the Hero's Journey is also called "Meeting The Mentor" which provides encouragement, wisdom, or magical gifts to push the Hero past fear and doubt. Surely that did not happen in real life either but that is one way cinema shows the character's struggle.

Thus this "Anwar: The Untold Story" sits right in the middle between a "Snapshot Bio" (which takes a portion of the protagonist's life) and a "Conventional Bio" (which covers the entire life). This one has a little bit of both, but more into the "Snapshot Bio" in my humble opinion because it revolves around his life before the prison time in 1998 into his termination as the Deputy Prime Minister soon after. But at the same time, there are flashbacks of his time back when he was just a little boy.

FLASHBACKS
Something about flashbacks in film, when it is triggered upon looking at something of being at a place, the flashback is not of real memory, instead, it is just suggestive and imaginary. In this film it has none of that, meaning that the flashbacks really took place in the past. A tricky mix here is when the flashbacks do not happen from Anwar's POV but instead of the happenings where he is not in the scene. For example, the meetings where Dr. M had with his counterparts in planning what to do with Anwar.

In a way, this has been done the "Citizen Kane" style where the flashbacks are of the investigator trying to find out what the word "Rosebud" means. And how the choice of the tall build of Farid Kamil which easily outgrown any other character on screen is similar to how Orson Welles shows Kane through his stature on screen. Oh, back when a close-up of a character on a big screen is cinematic and meant something. Nowadays a video filter is called 'cinematic' just for looking like one.

Anyways.

Right at the end of the film when the flashbacks are synchronized with the present, he rises from his injury and walked out of the prison alive. This stage is called the "Resurrection". He is out from that "Special World" (the prison, which can also be the "Cave" in the "Cave Allegory") where the audience is taken through his ups and down, to now seeing him reborn a different man and continues to the timeline where the film started.

FILM DISCLAIMERS
Disclaimer or no disclaimer about the accuracy of the accounts, once it is translated into the screen, it is fictional. As Andre Tarkovsky said in his book, "Sculpting in Time" when he was working on the 1966 film "Andrey Rublyov".

"The film is set in the fifteenth century, and it turned out to be excruciatingly difficult to picture 'how everything was'. We had to use any sources we could: architecture, the written word, and iconography.

Had we gone for the reconstruction of the picturesque tradition of the picturesque world of those times, the result would have been a stylized, conventional ancient Russian world, of the kind that at best is reminiscent of miniatures or icons of the period. BUT FOR CINEMA, THAT IS NOT THE RIGHT WAY."

How this historic political event happened in 1998 is known by most but the "Untold Story" is actually not just about Anwar Ibrahim, but Azizah who is shown by director Viva Westi as being on the same level as his husband as a fighter. Behind every great man, is a great woman.

It is easy to label the timing of this one as "idol worshipping" and propagandic. But look at it without being judgemental and you will see its true intent and subtext.

The protagonist's "Hero's Journey" started the film blindfolded, then only with one eye and completes the circle, out of the prison scarred, but with both eyes open. As should all Malaysians.

Trailer