"Everyone has a first love story to tell"
A trailer forYasmin Ahmad's new film, Mukhsin, is available at YouTube. The film has also been selected for competition in the Generation section of the Berlin International Film Festival. Mukhsin had earlier premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
The film will be released in Malaysia on March 8. It tells the story of friendship and innocent love between 13-year-old Mukhsin (Mohd Syafie Naswip) and 10-year-old Orked (Sharifah Aryana), when the boy comes to Orked's village to live with his aunt during the school holidays.
Youtube Trailer
Synopsis from Focus Films Limited:
Mukhsin
In a more ideal time and space, in a quiet part of Malaysia far from the city, a ten-year-old girl is about to discover the bitter sweet taste of first love. Bright and precocious, Orked has always been very much a loner. Even though she lives in a neighbourhood that is peopled with children who gather every evening to play, Orked prefers the company of her storybooks. While the neighbourhood kids tolerate her participation in their games and revelry, the tomboyish Orked is very much treated like an outsider.
However, things are about to change when a new boy arrives to visit his aunt. Very much an outsider too, the twelve-year-old Mukhsin soon develops a warm friendship with Orked. This strong bond soon becomes a little more for the enamoured Mukhsin who develops romantic feelings for Orked. First elated with the fact that she has found a kindred spirit who can relate to her on so many levels, Orked now has to try and understand Mukhsin’s romantic feelings for her. We see Orked struggling to understand the fine line between true friendship and romantic love. It is an awkward time for her as she doesn’t know how to deal with Mukhsin when he gets jealous of her being with other boys. Muhksin on the other hand is faced with the yearning of wanting her to be more than friends but does not know how to articulate it. And, as Mukhsin leaves the neighbourhood, Orked suddenly realises that she may have feelings for Mukhsin other than that of a best friend.
Although Yasmin Ahmad’s Mukhsin tells the age-old story of the human condition in the face of young love and friendship, it is also peopled with remarkable charcters that make the film warm and real. There is Orked’s family whom Mukhsin gets acquainted with. There is Orked’s doting and playful father Pak Atan, her affectionate and sharp mother Mak Inom, and the funny, sweet family maid Mak Som. They add true colour to the neighbourhood with their odd, amusing but always endearing ways which sometimes do not adhere to the norms of the community.
Director： Yasmin Ahmad
Yr/Length： 2006
Cast： Mohd Syafie Bin Naswip / Sharifah Aryana Syed Zainal Rashid / Irwan Iskandar Abidin Sharifah Aleya Syed Zainal Rashid / Adibah Noor
‘Mukhsin’ picks up two awards at Berlin film fest
By ALLAN KOAY
KUALA LUMPUR: Filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad never expected to win anything at the 57th Berlin International Film festival, but her film, Mukhsin, picked up not one, but two prizes there.
International boost: Yasmin (right) and Sharifah Aryana posing beside a poster for the Berlin Film Festival in the German capital.
Competing in the Generation section, dedicated to films about young people, Mukhsin was awarded the Grand Prix by the Kinderfilmfest International Jury and a Generation K-Plus Crystal Bear Special Mention.
In a telephone interview from Berlin, an elated Yasmin said she had returned to Malaysia after presenting her film at three screenings, when she received a call on Friday informing her of her win. She returned to the German capital on Saturday to attend the awards ceremony.
The jury’s citation described Mukhsin as: “A wonderful, almost magical atmosphere, enhanced by a striking soundtrack, poetic images of the closeness of a family and community. Witty script combined with well-rounded and humorous characters. All this in a story of a friendship that dared not cross into love, and a love for which friendship is no longer enough.”
Yasmin said she met with the members of the jury after the ceremony and they told her that Mukhsin was the last of the 600 films they had had to see.
“They said a lot of the films they had seen were very heavy and violent, and that it was refreshing to see something about a heavy subject treated realistically,” she said.
“When the jury deliberated on my film, they talked about human responses. This reinforces my belief that it’s humanity that moves people.”
Mukhsin, which tells the story of a 13-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl who fall in love after striking up a close friendship, premiered in Berlin to packed houses and positive response.
“One of the nicest comments I received was from a man who said he thought the world was okay after seeing my film,” said Yasmin.
She received two certificates and a prize money of 7,500 Euro RM34,400).
She had attended the festival with her young star, Sharifah Aryana, who plays the female lead Orked in the film.
Mukhsin will be released locally in next month.
Credit: The Star (M) Online
Still frames from the film Mukhsin:
