Though Malaysia's official religion is Islam, the state has seen an interesting pushback among the people in the onslaught of immigration and Arabization. Amirul Rahman's “Kognisi” touches upon this on a grassroots level, questioning Malay identity in a bipolar lens. The film – which had played last year at Pesta Filem Kita 2020 by Projek Dialog, and was produced by Adam Taufiq Suharto (Koyak Tiket Films) – presents an intriguing exploration into the contemporary Malaysian identity crisis.
“Kognisi” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
The film opens with Ali Aiman and his tahfiz academy classmates, fully clad in uniform, on an outing in the city. They confess their dedication to Islam in bits and pieces to the camera, documentary-style. As they venture further into the city's winding metro system, Aiman sees his crisis embodied. His white-robed classmates walk away from him on one end; on the other, a mirror image of himself, adorning traditional Malay costume, approaches him. Shaken, Aiman must decide: which is more important — being Muslim or Malay?
The idea is intriguing, and the metaphorical scenes are compelling. The film itself however, is poorly executed. Aside from the snippet interviews, the first half of the film reads as aimless drivel. The sequences simply do not follow up. For example, the first scene cuts between Aiman and his classmates in the train station. Aiman heads to the men's restroom; his classmates begin to exit the station. There is no logical lead after that, however, since the film immediately cuts to the rooftop of their school. If this is an attempt at dreamlike sequencing, perhaps Rahman should rethink his dreams again — for at least dreams have more purpose than this frustratingly pointless journey.
And this aimless wandering of the first half of the film is no more enjoyable to watch due to the poor sound quality and camerawork. Cinematographer Ridhwan Sadi appropriately captures light, however his shaky handiwork throughout much of the film gives it an amateur note. It is particularly jarring when Sadi engages in an extreme close-up of Aiman — perhaps too close for comfort — as, like the beginning of the film, the close-up reads as redundant. The consistent ambient noise too — of cars rumbling over the tunnel, of the fuzzy buzz behind the interviews, and even of a police car's squeal at — are rude reminders of the film's low-budget nature. And like any student film, the insistence on slow motion is simply painful to watch. Clumsy technical mishandlings ruin what would otherwise be a poetic exploration of intersectionality.
There is a large variance in quality in our #SubmitYourFilm initiative, and Rahman's “Kognisi” unfortunately lies on the lower end. While the concepts in Rahman's film are intriguing – particularly in the latter half, when Aiman faces off with the two manifestations of his identity – the cinematography and sound fall short. “Kognisi” ultimately reads like any other student film: promising ideas, but ultimately lacking in execution.
