NOOB FILM REVIEW - SEMAN. A LOST HERO directed by Mansor Bin Puteh (1988)

A FABLED MALAYSIAN FILM FROM 1988
I have heard about this film long ago. But the myth surrounding it grew as I learned more about film and the local scene. All amplified with its enigmatic auteur who only has this one film to his credit.

Pak Hassan Muthalib shared with me his writings on it. In it, he quotes a lot from another guru, the late Dr. Anuar Nor Arai. These two names are enough for me to strip away any expectation of a regular film viewing and adapt something from James Joyce's 'aesthetic experience.'

One, is of 'pornography', which would make me want to possess the object. Two is of 'didactic', making me criticize or reject the object. I am adapting the third one, which is to appreciate and look at 'Seman' as one, whole thing. Framed like a painting and take it as it is. It is the experience of epiphany. I have finally seen the fabled film.

'Seman' is a film from 1988 yet there is a saying by Lauran Bacall, "It is not an old movie if you haven't seen it."

What is the film about? Easy. It is stated clearly on the poster. It is about "A successful advertising executive gets more than what he is looking for when he researches for a novel on his family." But what we should be looking at is how it is being told.

In his 2003 working paper, Pak Hassan Muthalib describes 'Seman' as:

"Imejannya tersangat dialektik, naratifnya merupakan anti-plot, tetapi struktur & tekstur diperlihatkan dilayar secara tersusun. Ruang & masa jarang mempunyai kesinambungan & seringkali ‘disjointed’. Watak menjadi objek & bukan subjek, sekaligus pendekatan ini menjadikannya sebuah filem anti-genre."

Pak Hassan labelled it, "counter-cinema". He further quoted the late Dr. Anuar Nor Arai saying:

“Yang berada dalam ingatan putus2 & fragmented…waktu tidak dituntut dengan waktu kalendar. Waktu dituntut dengan emosi
& intelek.”

A LOST HERO
With all this sounding peculiar and strange enough to a normal audience, it is that which has given 'Seman' its reputation. Today we have an industry where every film has to fit a certain template so the public would understand it.

A quote that I found recently by Schopenhauer, "If you want to reach a large audience, appeal to idiots." In the age of the internet and social media, many shamelessly take pride in getting acknowledgments from the latter. Unfortunately, it is closely connected to livelihood, which is by selling more. Here is where we can see the difference between the artist and those who pretend to be one.

Mansor Puteh belongs to that special group of people I know who will not leave the country just because the grass isn't as green here. They sailed over the ocean seeking treasures. They sailed home with the intention of planting the seed for a greater nation. But almost all of them faced a brick wall.

Quite ironically, Seman is about a lost hero. Probably he could be one of the 'Hero with a Thousand Faces' literature archetype described in detail by Joseph Campbell and goes through quite a similar circular journey but does not end nicely. I see the ending as a 'tragedy'.

The same can be said about the post-screening dialog session. Being the body that handles the responsibility of film education, it is quite puzzling for a noob like me to see the panels missing the whole point of having a post-screening dialog session.

It is said this is the second screening after 10 years and in short, what I get from the dialog is a big 'I don't know' in talking about Seman. Earlier I shared some quotes from the working papers from the years 2002 and 2003 by Pak Hassan Muthalib and the late Dr. Anuar Nor Arai and I believe it was written after a screening too. So totalling three separate screenings in over 30 years and yet the local film industry is almost at the same spot (if not worse). Probably due to (taken from Pak Hassan's working paper, which includes excerpts from Nam Ron's film Gedebe, the never-ending reign of the 'Big Brother'.

AN ABSURDIST HERO
Yet the protagonist did not give up or kill himself, he accepts the pointlessness of it all. In my opinion, Seman is Mansor Puteh and his move to accept the meaninglessness of being in the film industry is not of sad, passive, or depressive surrender, yet it is an act of resistance by looking at it square in the face and lives in it anyways. Probably with both arms raised high with two middle fingers toward it. He is one of our Absurdist heroes.

This film Seman is like the character Lucky in Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting For Godot', when he finally speaks at the end of the play, no one can understand a word he is saying. Because Lucky is also an Absurdist Hero. He seems to bear a heavy burden and when offered comfort and distraction, he willingly goes back to that burden and picks it up again. Whilst the two other main characters, Vladimir and Estragon seem doomed to wait for Godot, forever.

Our film industry is waiting for its 'Godot'. Hence, the screening of Seman right at the heart of 'Big Brother' is quite a juxtaposing act in itself.