SELUBUNG (1992)

Selubung (1993) by Shuhaimi Baba is a film about the life and determination of a modern Muslim female, Mastura. Mastura, is also known as Mas in the movie, is a best friend to E.J and Halim. Three of them pursue their studies in Perth, Australia. In the final year of their studies, E.J decided to get married to Brother Musa, a religious extremist, because she is so attached to her religion, Islam. Mas had persuaded E.J for not getting married to Brother Musa, but failed. After their graduation, Halim became a volunteer in helping the Middle East Muslim in Lebanon. As for Mas, she returned to Malaysia and worked in an engineering research firm. At the same time, she joined Rescaid as well in helping the Muslim children in Middle East country. Mas met Dr. Sardar, the leader of Rescaid Malaysia. As the story goes along, Mas fall in love with Kamal, the head of the research firm that she works in. They had gone through love, romance and even “truth revealing” moments when Mas had found out Kamal is actually married. The story reached its climax part when Mas unfortunately involved in an explosion incident. That incident has caused her to experience a coma while there is a Rescaid charity concert is actually going on. Nevertheless, due to the determination and strong-minded of Mas, she finally awake from the coma and continue in supporting the Rescaid organization.

According to Van der Heide (2002), Selubung is the story of a woman returning to Malaysia to rediscover herself in her culture through an attachment to a man and a reconnection to her childhood. The woman referred by Van der Heide in the film is the main character, Mastura. As we can see in the film, Mastura is modern Muslim female who is not into her own religion, which is Islam. We can clearly observe it from her appearance, attitude and behavior, and the way she talks. She often wears denim jeans in the film. From this aspect, we know that she is heavily influenced by the western culture as she had ever studied in Perth, Australia. Besides, she is independent and brave in term of her attitude and behavior. This is not in line with the attitude and behavior of a traditional woman in Malaysia. Mastura stay calm and has the courage to negotiate and talk to Kamal when Kamal knocks her car. She talks in a rude and impolite manner. This has break through the norm of a traditional female character in Malaysia. Furthermore, the way Mastura talks show that she is a high educated person who is heavily influenced by the western cultures. She uses mixture of Malay and English language in her daily conversation in office or Rescaid organization. Moreover, she talks with confidence shows that she is an independent woman who is brave enough to pursue for things that she wants or wishing for, regardless of her doings or her love one.

Other than Mastura, another portrayal of strong-minded woman is Dr. Sardar , the leader of Rescaid in Malaysia. Dr. Sardar used to work at the refugees camp in Lebanon. Unfortunately, the camp was attacked by the enemy soldiers and even worst, they killed all her family and friends. From this aspect, we can see that Dr. Sardar is an independent and strong-minded woman who works in Rescaid organization in Malaysia to help those in need in Middle East country even her family and friends have been scarified when the war attacked. Furthermore, she is a brave woman because she wishes to join the army force in the war. However, “woman is not allowed to join the army force” she claimed to Vincent, her assistant. From this aspect, we can see that she has the courage in protecting the country that she lives in. In addition, she has the spirit of not afraid of dying in fighting with enemies and to protect her own motherland.

In contrast, E.J, who is the best friend of Mastura, is a traditional woman who wears a proper shirt which obeys the rule and regulation in Islamic study. She wears Malay’s traditional shirt, Baju Kurung, or long sleeve shirt and long pants in every scene that she appeared in the film. Other than that, she wears Tudung to work or whenever she met a male character in the film. According to Khoo (2006), Selubung (1992) reveal the film’s strong proclivity towards secularism while showcasing an example of the dakwah movement. E.J has faith in Allah, but is too over, which has caused her to get married to Brother Musa, a religious extremist, and becoming his second wife in a polygamous marriage. E.J is forced to stop her study during her last year in university because she claimed that “Isteri yang derhaka adalah isteri yang lebih tinggi perlajaran daripada suaminya”.

The editing of Selubung is kind of complicated. This is because of the flashback scenes are inter-slot in between with the actual and on-going story line. It gives people a feeling of complexity in term of the story and confuses the viewers. For example, when Mastura is quarrelling with Kamal and Lin at Rescaid Malaysia about the reason why Mastura refuses to pay a visit to E.J. In this scene, a flashback scene of Hani, the first wife of Brother Musa murdered the baby of E.J is slotted in between. The murdered scene then connects to the scene where Mastura is paying visit to E.J in Terengganu.

REFERENCES

Khoo. G. C. (2006). Reclaiming Adat: Contemporary Malaysian Film and Literature. Singapore: Singapore University Press

Van der Heide. W. (2002). Malaysian Cinema, Asian Film: Border Crossings and National Cultures. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press