Maryam (Sofia Jane) appears to lead a modern existence; she owns a successful art gallery and resides in a spacious, opulent apartment. She practically has almost any kind of freedom except choosing her own mate. In a country that strictly follows Sharia law, she still needs the approval of her father, her legal guardian (“wali”), to get married. It doesn't seem to matter that Maryam is already 50 years old, she will receive plenty of mansplaining on her protracted quest to have her wedding approved. The fact that she comes from an aristocratic family and that her father is none other than the timber tycoon Tengku Dol further burdens her with the expectation that she will marry someone of equal standing, preferably a royalty and certainly not a much younger black man from Sierra Leone.
Maryam is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam
Although we are not given the opportunity to view her great love Damian, Maryam's conservative surroundings seem to be preoccupied with the size of “his wood.” “Huge like a chengal. Solid “, as her father eloquently puts it, and “possibly too painful for a Malaysian lady who is built to be entered by a Malaysian man,” as her designated marriage counsellor Ustaz Azman (Pekin Ibrahim) would remark later in the movie. Men and women alike try to persuade her to give up on her love and find a more pragmatic solution, with the exception of her lawyer Hajjah Azmah (Bella Rahim), a feminist with right words for every occasion, and the only person who doesn't seem to care about Damian's origin and skin color.
The script penned by Faisal Tehrani and Badrul Hisham Ismail draws attention at injustices women in Malaysia experience, but also at racism. It almost seems that any other men – “even a worker at IKEA” would be a better match for her than an African man. When one of two Maryam's best friends (Susan Lankester) quips that coffee served in a bar in Kuala Lumpur should be Maylasian rather than African, she is met by a smirk to which she reacts with a dry – “Wakanda Forever” comment.
Sofia Jane is sublime in as a woman who fights a difficult war against the state bureaucracy and prejudice. This is her most daring performance since the telefilm “Sebuah Ijtihad” (2007) which brought her Best Female Actor in a Drama Award at Malaysia's Screen Awards. Also very memorable in his role as the tycoon's butler is the Malaysian musician Roslan Madun, as one of the two only open-minded male characters in the movie. Behind the hand held camera of “Maryam” is Eric Yeong, twice awarded as the Best Cinematographer at Malaysian Film Festival – first time for Keng Guan Chiu's (cross-Asia) cinema hit “Journey” (2014), and the second for Shio Chuan Quek's drama “Guang” (2018). His feeling for detail makes spaces and people closer to the viewer by precise framing, and respectful distance to faces.
“Maryam” is an important drama about deep gender gaps in Malaysian society. The film had its world premiere in the Harbour program of International Film Festival Rotterdam.
