LELAKI KOMUNIS TERAKHIR
MAL 2006 – Director: Amir Muhammad – Original language: Cantonese, Hokkien, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil – Subtitles: English – Length: 90 min.
The last Communist of Malaysia is Chin Peng (real name: Ong Boon Hua), a leader in the fight against the occupying forces: the British colonial power, then the Japanese invaders, and then once again against the British. As a leader of the Malaysian guerrilla war, the longest and bloodiest undeclared war in Commonwealth history, Chin Peng soon became the most wanted man in the British Empire. After Malaysia achieved independence in 1957, the new government was firmly allied with the West and the Communist Party was banned. Chin Peng had to go into hiding in the Thailand jungle where he has lived in exile until this very day.
Director Amir Muhammad conducts interviews with various people in the towns Chin Peng lived in until his exile. They talk about their jobs and their beliefs in various languages, reflecting the multilingual and polymorphous reality of contemporary Malaysia. The interviews are interspersed with especially composed songs, an ironic tribute to the old-fashioned propaganda films of British colonialism. "If I were to sum up this documentary in one word, it is about landscape. If I were to sum it up in two words, it is about contested terrains." Amir Muhammad
"Of course I’d heard of communists when I was growing up; they were the repository of all that was mad, bad and dangerous to know. My interest was piqued to do something on Chin Peng when his memoirs My Side of History came out in 2003." Amir Muhammad
English/Original Title: The Last Communist. Writer: Amir Muhammad. Camera: Albert Hue. Sound: Albert Hue. Editing: Azharr Rudin. Music: Hardesh Singh. Production: Red Films. Producer: Amir Muhammad.
