Gubra Review
This review based on the Singapore DVD release available from MovieXclusive.
I cannot for the life of me understand why Malaysia's Yasmin Ahmad is not the darling of the international film festival circuit. Despite a debut film - the cross-ethnic romance Sepet - that generated much acclaim wherever it was seen Ahmad's work has failed to travel very widely and this is puzzling. Ahmad has a very particular gift, a unique genius, for making films that feel light and entertaining while they actually teem with complex emotions and ideas. Ahmad is not only a remarkably gifted film maker but she is also, in this day and age particularly, a very important one - a film maker unafraid to tackle issues of identity, ethnicity, and religion - specifically Islam - and the difficulties inherent in people of different origins living side by side.
After using a cross-ethnic romance as an image for her homeland in Sepet Ahamd here broadens her scope quite simply by broadening the scope of Orked, the young woman at the center of her earlier film. But though Gubra shares a central character with Sepet it is less a direct sequel than it is a thematic continuation of that previous film. Yes, there are ties between them but you need not have seen Sepet to appreciate and understand Gubra as Orked is merely one player among many and Ahmad has moved well beyond the themes and story of that first film. Sepet caught Orked in the rush of first love, the raw attraction to something other, while Gubra takes her into the difficulties of adulthood.
Set a few years after the events of Sepet, Gubra is built around a pair of storylines running in parallel. Following the failed relationship of Sepet Orked has settled down and married Arif, an advertising exec who shares her own Malay origins. Everything seems well on the surface but when a medical crisis strikes in the family Orked discovers that the seemingly devoted Arif has actually been conducting an affair behind her back and a chance encounter with the brother of her dead lover combines with this to throw her into an emotional crisis. Running concurrently to this is the story of a young Muslim cleric and his unlikely friendship with the pair of prostitutes who live just around the corner, a friendship marked by the young Imam and his wife caring for the prostitute's young son as she endures a medical crisis of her own.
Gubra deals with such a host of thorny issues - adultery, mortality, and religion prime among them - that on paper it sounds as though it should be either an enormously depressing experience, a litany of of woes, or a lot of finger wagging moralising. But surprisingly, it is neither. Ahmad clearly is a woman who loves her culture, she embraces the differences that often threaten to drive her people apart, and you can very easily read the film as a love letter to those differences. She understands that things are difficult and treats those difficulties with honesty and insight but she clearly believes that whatever the difficulties may be they are well worth working through. So if you are expecting a lecture you will be hard pressed to find one, she would much rather observe and enjoy. And though Ahmad has a keen eye and treats the more difficult parts of her characters lives with honesty and integrity she also refuses to wallow in the negatives, constantly finding subtle grace notes in the most unlikely of places.
Gubra is a film that has triggered its share of controversy and not surprisingly so. By focusing on the humanity of her young cleric rather than on dogma Ahmad generated a certain amount of anger from the conservative Muslim elements in her homeland who objected to the idea of a cleric befriending prostitutes or stooping to pet a dog. And the social elements who objected to the cross-ethnic romance of Sepet can not have been pleased by Orked's new, supposedly pure and therefore better, relationship in this film proving to be, if anything, more difficult and less reliable than was her earlier, troublesome romance. But you never get the sense that Ahmad is trying to court controversy, if anything she is trying to encourage people to rise above it, to look at issues of underlying humanity that we all share rather than on surface diferences.
While the Singapore DVD release of the film has some notable flaws it is, no doubt, a much better release than most Malay films receive. The transfer is letterboxed and features some small amount of dirt on the print but is otherwise quite clear with good colors and contrasts. The English subtitles are very good - quite clear and easy to read. It's certainly not a flawless release but it more than does the job and provides an opportunity for English speaking audiences to encounter a truly remarkable film maker.
